Alice from Wonderland
by crazyrTHANu882
Summary: She then walked over to the windowsill, looking out at the village in the distance, not too far for Father, Mother, and Sister, but further than the other end of the world for Alice. What happens when an Alice kept away from people, enters Wonderland?
1. Down the Rabbit Hole

A/N: And I am apparently not dead, amazing ain't it? Well, try to guess who had not only writer's block, but no inspiration, time, or energy really, to actually write anything? That's right, me! I started this story in like late June, so yeah, it's been a pretty long work in progress, mostly cause I got distracted with going to Disney World, band camp, school starting, having an AP, Advanced Placement, class, getting a cat, marching competition, football games that I am forced to go to for a grade, and so many other school things, you know basic stuff that gets in the way of writing, although I somehow got to write about three chapters in the past week, guess I just wanted to write. Anyway, point is, this story is quite different from what I normally write, because one, it's not Ouran fan fiction, and two, my writing style has changed a lot because although I've published nothing since I put my other stories on hiatus, I'm still writing all sorts of stories and am still trying to improve my style. To those of you that might have read that last chapter of SWJAPT, I'm actually quite sorry, now that I look back, I was a real whiner about getting reviews and stuff, and I'm sorry about that; so I'm going to try and turn a new leaf, I'll try to depend less on reviews to keep me going and more on just whether or not I enjoy what I'm writing, which I really do with this one, it's actually a lot easier to write because instead of starting half baked, I started when it was almost fully baked.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this story, which will be the first one I publish for quite some time, and I'm not pushing you or anything, but yeah, reviews would still be super awesome, just throwing it out there.

Disclaimer: All characters are the original property of Lewis Carroll unless otherwise indicated, I am not the owner and have instead taken creative liberty with the characters, I receive no monetary gain from writing this(which kinda sucks) chapter titles, parts of chapter titles, and quotes, while the original property of Lewis Carroll may or may not have been, altered or changed as seen according by myself.

Read, Enjoy, Review

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"Alice, what are you doing?"_

_Alice, the blond haired girl, turned and looked at the brunette girl, who was now reprimanding her for some reason beyond Alice's understanding, but she silently accepted the scolding from the elder girl, who she knew as simply, Sister. Unlike Alice, the brunette girl had no special name that was all her own, she was only Sister, and so she would remain, until beyond the end of time itself and forever. Sister would have been considered pretty by all, if only she had a name; with smooth, unblemished, pale skin, and locks of chestnut, with honey brown eyes; of course, none of these pretty traits mattered, because Sister didn't have a name. Alice knew Sister hated that, she knew how Sister envied her because she had a name all her own, and Alice knew that Sister only took care of her because Mother and Father(whose names, if they had any, which did not seem likely, Alice did not know), told her that if she didn't, then she would be punished._

_"Alice, are you listening to me?" Sister asked, glaring at the younger girl._

_Alice stared quietly for a short time at Sister, before answering, "Of course, Sister."_

_Sister glared at Alice, but then walked back to the pretty, old house where they lived, Alice stared at the tall, tall, tower where she lived herself, hidden from the rest of the world, like Rapunzel in her own tower, but unlike Rapunzel, there was no prince who would visit her, and she did not have hair either strong or long enough to climb down from the tower with._

_She turned away from the tower, not wanting to be drawn to it any longer and possibly get sent back up before her outside time was over. Alice walked along the edge of mirror-like lake, staring deep into its still depths, allowing herself to be drawn closer to the water, not at all minding how dangerously she was leaning forward._

_"Alice!"_

_Alice reluctantly turned to see Sister rush up to her, and then drag her away from the lake, towards the house, where she called for Mother and Father, after they were told of what Alice had been doing, Alice was again scolded and received a harsh slap on the face from Father and was thrown into her dungeon of a tower room, the door made a 'click' as it was locked from the outside. She then walked over to the windowsill and sat upon the cushioned seat there, looking out at the trees upon endless trees, which gave way to a village somewhere in the distance, not too far for Father, Mother, and Sister, but further than the other side of the world for Alice. She sighed, but settled herself on the cushions and stared out the window, watching the birds settle on the sill outside, so close to touch, but the locked window, the key being with the countless others that Father had, prevented them from meeting; she barely noticed when the day had turned to afternoon, that lunch had been brought and taken away, and that it was already evening, already she could hear the footsteps bringing dinner to her._

_The slot in the door for food plates to be slid through was opened and then closed, Alice stared at the tray that was presented to her; a carefully cut and decorated chicken of some sort, with neatly arranged peas, carrots, and corn, as well as a small, but adequate, helping of mashed potatoes and a small serving of gravy for the mashed potatoes, it was all topped off with a small vase that held a carefully arranged selection of wild flowers in it._

_Alice cut away a few small pieces of the chicken, barely touched the vegetables, hardly skimmed the mashed potatoes, and poured none of the gravy, sometime later when they came to pick up the dinner plate, Alice could barely hear a small sigh from whoever it was outside the door, but nonetheless, she continued to absently gaze out the window. She continued to look deeply at the window, feeling herself being drawn not by the outside image, but an image of a reflection shown to her, she looked over at the real thing shown to her in the reflection._

_It was her bookcase, in the reflection in the window, she saw something dash behind it, and she began to debate with herself, whether she should call for someone to come and check behind the bookcase, for it could have been a rather large rat that she had seen, or check herself what was behind there. She decided against bothering anyone and instead approached the bookcase, looking in the small space behind it to try and find something._

_What Alice found was nothing of what she had expected, a small, toy rabbit, but all her toys were dolls, or dogs and cats, perhaps a few rabbits, but none like the one before her, for this rabbit was made from pristine white fabric with not the slightest speck of dust upon it, even though Alice knew the floor upon which it laid was extremely dusty. What was very strange about this rabbit was the fact that it was dressed, in a nice red coat and a pair of nice black pants, upon its nose, in front of a pair of shiny, red, jewelish eyes, were a small set of circular glasses, making her wonder if the rabbit did not eat enough carrots to keep its eyesight good, and peculiarly enough, it had in its hand what looked suspiciously like a real, golden, pocket watch. This confused Alice to no end and made the rabbit toy all the more curious, and so she pushed the bookshelf as much as she could, so that she might at least sneak herself close enough to the rabbit to investigate it further._

_Once she was close enough to the rabbit, she reached out to pick it up with her hand, only for her hand to miss, as though she had miscalculated and the rabbit was actually further away than she had first thought. 'Hmm, how curious.' Alice thought to herself as she reached again, this time positive that she could catch the rabbit, again she missed!_

_'Curiouser and curiouser.' Alice thought to herself, reaching a third time for the rabbit, only for it to stand up of its own accord, run around her bookcase and instead rush under her bed; Alice, not being one to be defeated by a toy rabbit, launched herself under her bed, sure to have the rabbit cornered now, but instead found her hand no longer touching hardwood floor, and the rest of her body joined her hand in shock as she fell down the very deep and somewhat dark hole._

_Alice was quite surprised, and for some time could not find it in her to even scream for how surprised she was, and so instead of screaming she thought, and wondered over how long she had been falling. "Hmm, well, considering how long I have been falling, and how long ago I was given dinner, I cannot have been falling for more than, hmm, let's see." Alice paused a moment in her speaking, should someone else be around she wanted to impress them, to count something out on her fingers, "Yes, it could not have been for more than an hour and so I must be falling at a rate of, hmm, I should say, about one hundred feet per hour or so, yes, that would be most right."_

_Alice smiled, having believed to impress whoever could have been near, but when no one either congratulated or corrected her, she instead frowned, for she had impressed no one. Then she looked down and noticed that a hardwood floor was rapidly approaching her and she closed her eyes tightly, thinking she would find herself in much pain upon landing on the floor, and was indeed surprised at what she found herself to have landed upon._


	2. The Cheshire Cat and a Mad TeaParty

A/N: Sorry, I know the first chapter is very short, so for a second chapter, you get a very long one, just how the cookie crumbles I suppose.

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Alice opened her plain brown eyes to find the bright sun shining above her, she lifted her hand into the air, covering the glare of the sun, and then stared at the hand curiously. While Sister had such light pale hands, with not a single scratch on them, Alice's were a darker color, not tan, but not pale like Sister, and unlike Sister they had little light marks across them, from accidentally cutting her hand with a knife when eating, or falling down outside, or other such things. Finally Alice brought her hand back down, and brought herself up, immediately shaking her head so as to get rid of the dizzy feeling and the wild flowers that had made themselves comfortable in her hair, her hair that was a stringy, dirty color, not quite brown like Sister's, but not quite blond either.

She looked about the clearing she was in, wide and open with lush green grass, and numerous other beds of wild flowers like the one she was still seated in; providing her with shade was the only tree in the clearing, minus the ones that enclosed it, a tall and grand oak tree, at the base of which was her flower bed.

"My, my, now what have we here?"

Alice looked up at the direction from where the voice came, finding it to be from somewhere in the tree above her, but seeing no one anywhere in the branches of the tree.

"Where are you?" Alice called out to the voice.

"Somewhere, here, there, above and beyond." the voice answered from nowhere in particular, rather confusing Alice.

"Really, where are you?" Alice asked again, looking about her to try and find the voice herself.

"Behind you, my dear."

Alice quickly turned her head to look at the owner of the voice, who had just whispered that into her ear, the owner of the voice was now rubbing their face, from where her hair must have slapped them. The owner of the voice was an older boy, perhaps nineteen years or so to Alice's fourteen, but he was a curious boy, with darkly tanned skin, black hair, and murky yellow eyes, this wasn't curious though, he wore a simple white shirt with simple trousers, that wasn't curious either, what _was_ curious was the fact that he had ears, _cat ears_, and a cat tail, which both had purple and pink stripes to them. Alice immediately backed away from him, well as far away as she could while seated on the ground that is.

The boy merely cocked his head at her, yellow eyes following her every twitch, an ear of his own twitched slightly, reacting to some far off noise, and his long, smooth tail swished quietly behind him. He walked closer towards Alice, and as she backed away more, a smirk smoothly found its way onto his face, looking more than comfortable there.

"Wh-who are you?" Alice asked backing away until her back finally hit the rough bark of one of the large roots of the oak tree, dozens of them were above the ground, trying to push the tree out of the earth and onto the ground.

The boy merely smirked at her, "I believe the real question is, _who_ are _you_?" he answered to Alice's question.

Alice blinked a few times curiously at the curious boy, before replying, "I am Alice, now, please, who are you?"

"Really?" before Alice could reply to that, he answered, "I'm a person." his smirk forming into a smug smile, as Alice's timidity morphed into annoyance.

Alice pushed herself off the ground, not bothering to make sure her dress was properly fixed as she did so, and said, "I am asking quite nicely, now please, what is your name?"

The boy rolled his yellow eyes, but answered Alice's question anyway, "They call me the Cheshire Cat."

"That's not a name." Alice replied, growing quite upset with his adamancy to not tell her his name.

"Well then, I suppose I don't have one." and then he turned to continue walking off into the forest surrounding the clearing.

Alice followed after him, too annoyed with his behavior to recall the fact that she had been told multiple times that it was unladylike to be alone with a boy, "No, no, you _must_ have some sort of a name, or else what am I to call you by?"

"I don't really care if you call me by anything, whatever will do."

"Well, then, I'll call you, Cat, yes, now Cat, tell me please, where am I?"

"You're somewhere, or maybe you're there, or here, over yonder, or someplace else." Cat answered, only annoying Alice even more.

"Cat, really, where am I?" Alice asked, stamping her foot in annoyance, "What do you call this place?"

"A forest." Cat replied, Alice almost screamed in annoyance at him, but instead an ear piercing noise cut her off and Alice saw the hackles on Cat's neck raise as the noise finally dimmed away.

"What was that awful thing?" Alice asked, looking about her for the source of the noise, Cat scratched his ears, trying to get some of his hearing back.

"Pardon, what was that?" he asked, having either not heard or paid attention to Alice's question, it was most likely the latter.

"What was that horrible noise?" Alice asked again, dearly hoping that it would not play again.

"Hmm, I suppose it was those two, having another of their parties or something." Cat vaguely replied, "If you follow where the noise came from you'll probably get some food, now I'm off." he said, as he began to walk off elsewhere.

"But wait, Cat, _where_ did it come from?" she asked, holding his arm so that he could not leave.

Cat turned to face her and shrugged his shoulders as he smiled brightly, his teeth looking particularly white against his tan skin, "Somewhere." and then Alice was holding nothing as Cat disappeared, leaving a momentary afterimage of his smile, before that too was gone.

"Cat!" Alice shouted angrily, "How dare you leave a young girl to fend for herself like this, you're despicable!" she shouted into the air, unsure if Cat even heard her, but then she decided to just keep walking straight, hoping she would get to the place where the horrid noise came from successfully. Soon enough she did come across white picket gate with a bell next to it and a sign upon the gate that read in nice script:

_Either present your invitation to us or ring the bell._

_From Mad Hatter & March Hare_

This was crossed out with what appeared to be a red ink of some sort, and it instead read in crude writing:

_Hey Ugly, scram!_

_With love, Hatter_

This was again scratched out in black ink this time and the new writing instead read:

_Ignore that, just please come in and present yourself to us._

_Signed, Hare_

Alice was really quite confused as to why someone would keep a sign that had already had its text scratched out so many times prior hanging on their gate, but she decided to just do as the sign told her and go present herself to these strange, Hatter and Hare people; it wasn't like she was trespassing or snooping around, the sign might as well have invited her into the house itself.

Alice walked around to the back of the house, where she could hear people talk together, when she appeared around the corner and they saw her, all conversation immediately stopped, not to say that there really was all that much conversation _to _be stopped, there were only two people, and so only one conversation could have been had anyway. The fact that there were only two people at a table set for twenty or more people rather confused Alice, but she decided to wonder over this fact at a later time, because the two people were staring expectantly at her.

"Um, the sign, said to come and present myself." Alice said, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other.

The two people looked at each other briefly, having some silent conversation through their eyes alone, before turning back to stare at Alice.

Alice bit her lip a little, before realizing what it was they were expecting and curtsied as she said, "Forgive me for being so rude, my name is Alice, Cat said if I came here then I would get food, but I was actually hoping to get some directions."

The two people looked at each other again, this time a confused look was duly noted on both their faces before the older looking one of the duo turned to Alice and asked, "Who is Cat?"

Alice answered, "Um, I mean the Cheshire Cat, I met him on my way here."

"So that's why the alarm went off." the younger looking boy said, he only looked younger than the man, who was perhaps in his twenties, while the boy barely looked a year or two older than Alice.

"You mean that horrid noise back then was your alarm?" Alice asked, to which the boy nodded his head.

"It goes off if the Cheshire Cat comes near here, we don't like having him at our tea parties." the elder man said, taking a sip of tea from the cup in front of him.

Now that Alice looked more carefully at them, she could easily tell who was whom, the Mad Hatter had to be the older man, for he had a strange looking top hat on his bright, bright, red, frizzy hair, and such green eyes as to make one wonder why the leaves of the trees were not always in their fall colors, since surely he had to steal their color to make his eyes so green, and he was dressed quite finely, his outfit must have been made from some grand sort of silk or something of the sort. The younger boy was the March Hare, because firstly, the older man was already the Mad Hatter and so obviously who else could he have been, and secondly, he had a pair of brown rabbit ears poking out of his bright, center-of-a-daisy yellow, messy hair, and while the Mad Hatter was pale in much the same way as Sister, the March Hare had tanned skin, not quite so tanned as Cat, but more than Alice was.

"Well then, what directions do you need, Hare and I know how to most anywhere from here." the Mad Hatter told Alice.

"Oh, well, Mr. Mad Hatter first, could you tell me, where am I? You see I came here by accident, I mean I fell, and I ended up here, no, I mean, I'm not quite sure what I mean, but I know that I should like to know where I am." Alice replied.

"Well, you are in our residence in the middle of a forest." the Mad Hatter replied, "Oh, also, please; our names are Hatter and Hare."

"You, you have names?" Alice asked, since she had thought herself to be the only person in the world with a name so far.

"Yes, Mad and March are titles, Hatter and Hare are our names."

"It's just; I've never met another person with a name."

"Really?" Hare asked, throwing himself into the conversation.

"It's just always been me as Alice, then Father, Mother and Sister, but you know, they don't have names like I do."

"That's quite strange." Hatter said, taking another sip of his tea, "Here, Alice, please sit down." he told her, pointing at a seat across from them and so she accepted the seat, "What sort of tea would you like?" he asked her.

"Um, I don't know, I don't often drink tea." she answered, curious as to why the two men were now staring at her with such obvious shock on their faces.

"You don't drink tea?" Hare asked, as though such a thing was absolutely incomprehensible and she should be smacked for daring to even _say_ something like that.

"It's just, Father and Mother only ever allowed me to drink water with my meals, there was never anything else for me to drink."

"We must cultivate the dear child in all things tea related." Hatter exclaimed, going about the table to grab all the tea pots he could find, and it seemed that there were a great many, about twenty or so were now presented to Alice, "Let's see, we have black tea, green tea, oolong, peppermint, chamomile, earl grey, Assam, Ceylon, lapsang souchong, keemun, Formosa oolong, Darjeeling, English breakfast." and those were just the few that Alice heard before she forgot most of them, since there were just so very many, too many for Alice to remember them properly.

"So, which one would you like to try, Alice?" Hare asked her.

"Um, that, grey one, I can't remember its name." Alice replied, her head hurting from the onslaught of so many tea names.

"Oh, you mean earl grey, yes, it's a delicious one I tell you." and he poured her a cup of the stuff, from which Alice carefully sipped and her eyes went wide as she did.

"It's absolutely delicious." she said, and Hare and Hatter both smiled happily at this, but then she shook her head and stood from her seat as she said, "But really, I must figure out a way back home."

"Why?" Hatter asked, his head tilting a little in a curious way, and Hare also turned a curious face to Alice, his ears flopping with a curious air to them as well.

"Well, because, um..." here Alice drew a blank, not quite knowing herself _why_ she wanted to go home, when she had already been treated better in this strange place, although having been there for perhaps not a full hour, then she had been in all her fourteen years of life with Father, Mother and Sister, "I don't know." she answered, plopping back down in her seat.

Hare suddenly seemed to be staring at her in such a peculiar way, when suddenly his eyes widened until they were about the size of the colorful tea plates on the table, "Oh, oh, she looks like the Queen!" he shouted.

Hatter stared at him curiously and raised a thin eyebrow at the boy, "What on earth are you babbling about now?"

"Because, because, when she came I thought to myself, I thought, 'Say Hare, doesn't she look familiar?' and I said to myself, 'Indeed she does, but I don't think I've ever met such a person who dressed so strange, here in Wonderland.' and I thought, 'Are you sure you haven't seen her face, Hare?' and it took me so long to figure it out, because I only ever saw an old poster of her from years ago, but the minute she asked for earl grey, it clicked Hatter, it did; because _she_, only ever drank earl grey, didn't she, at least, that's what I always _heard_, but I also remember hearing that the first tea she ever drank was earl grey, and so she never drank any other." Hare said energetically, and in such a way that Alice was growing more and more confused by the moment.

Hatter quietly sipped his tea as he contemplated what Hare had told him, "You know, you might be right," he finally said, "I was actually allowed in there, only once, back then, since they were discussing about how to go about giving me my title, since I was so young, and I do remember seeing her when I was there, the scent of her tea drifted over to me, and indeed it _was_ earl grey."

"What are you talking about?" Alice asked, getting rather upset over how they spoke about things she didn't quite understand.

The two looked at each other, before turning to Alice and answering together, "We think you're the princess."

Alice was a bit bewildered by this, "What?" she simply asked, taking another long sip of her tea, trying to calm herself.

"Of course, she went missing _quite_ a long time ago, not even a full year old." Hatter explained, "But I really am quite, very sure that you are indeed the princess who went missing."

"But that's impossible, I mean, I don't look anything like Mother and Father, though Mother was supposed to have given birth to me, but still, this place and where I'm from are too different, besides I've been where I'm from for as long as I can remember, they barely let me outside, so I doubt that I could have been from somewhere else."

"What if they didn't let you outside because they didn't want anyone to recognize you as our princess and take you back?"

"No, that's impossible too, because I came here after following a rabbit under my bed, and somehow I fell down here."

At this Hatter paused in his calm tea drinking, set down the tea cup and stared at Alice in such a serious way before asking, "You followed a rabbit down a hole, to here?"

"Well, at first, I saw it behind my bookcase, I thought that was odd, because it was a toy, and I had no toys like that rabbit, it was all white, with red eyes, and it was dressed strangely."

"How so?" Hatter asked, seeming quite intrigued by the rabbit that Alice was talking about.

"Well, it wore a coat, a red one, and it had black pants, oh also it had glasses, I thought that curious because rabbits have such good eyesight and all, but really, the most curious thing was that it had a gold pocket watch." Alice replied.

"The White Rabbit!" Hare exclaimed, standing up abruptly and upsetting a few tea cups and kettles in the process.

"Yes, yes, we know _that_, no reason to spill the tea over it." Hatter replied calmly, as Hare rushed to clean the spilled tea and clean up the cups and kettles that had been knocked over and what few had become broken.

"The White Rabbit?" Alice asked, as Hare quickly finished cleaning up the mess he had made.

"Yes, the Queen's advisor and errand boy, he must have found out where you were being held captive, your kidnappers must have figured out how to take you to a different world all together, to make sure they weren't caught and the White Rabbit must have went there to bring you back. Of course, he's a very shy and incompetent sort of person, so obviously he fled at the sight of you and only brought you here to get lost and die here in the woods before you could reach your mother again." Hatter replied, sipping calmly at his tea again.

"Oh." was all that Alice said, still just the slightest bit confused over this whole ordeal.

"So, what should we do now, I mean, even if he is like that, won't the White Rabbit try to come and look for her, to lead her back home?" Hare asked.

"Really, if we let him lead her there, then they would get eaten by something, so the best course of action is to send her off ourselves" Hatter replied.

"Wait, so neither of you is going to come with me?" Alice asked, feeling a bit scared at the idea of going into an unfamiliar wood by herself.

"Well, it's not like we can really go _there_ without an invitation, even if we _are_ bringing you back to the Queen." Hatter explained, "So we'll give you a map and some food, and then you'll be off on your way." and he calmly drank more of his tea, one of Hare's long ears twitched slightly as the pot that held the sugar suddenly shot open, allowing some small thing to run across the surface of the table. Hatter suddenly shot up and with wide eyes watched the thing scurry down the table, then turning to glare at Hare, he shouted, "Go catch him!"

Hare climbed on top of the table, not at all caring for the cakes, teas, or cups, platters and kettles that were forced to face off, and lose, against his feet as they trampled down the table, sliding to a finish at the end. Where he fell off in a loud crash, for a long time there was no sound from over there, but suddenly Hare's hand shot up from behind the table and he shouted, "Caught him!"

Hare got up from the mess, with some difficulty and a bit worse for wear, but was nonetheless alright and returned with the, whatever it was, trapped in his hand, he then presented it to Hatter, who took the thing from Hare and placed it in one of his front coat pockets. The thing then shot its head up out of Hatter's pocket and it seemed quite drowsy, although that too confused Alice, what really confused her was that the thing was a mouse, in fine clothing too.

"What is that?" she asked Hatter, pointing at the mouse in his pocket.

"Ah, this would be our Dormouse, but enough of him, Hare, fetch the map and a bag of food for the dear." Hatter ordered, and so Hare quickly disappeared into the house to return not a full minute later with a map and a small bag that already appeared full. Hatter saw the rather confused look on Alice's face at the sight of the items and so explained, "Many people get lost out here every day, sometimes they end up here and so we normally have several copies of maps and several already made packs of food to accommodate for them."

"Oh." was all that Alice said as the map and small pack were then shoved into her hands and Hare was pushing her out towards the woods.

"Be safe!" Hare shouted as he then returned to drink tea with Hatter and she continued to walk deeper into the forest.


	3. A Night Alone in the Forest

Alice sighed heavily as she sat down on a rock in the pathway that she was currently walking on, she opened the pack to find several sorts of tea cakes and a container of tea, as she sipped it she recognized the flavor to be earl grey. She then unrolled the map to look at where she was only to find it was blank save for a small note:

_To Hatter,_

_Remember to get more maps so that Hare doesn't accidentally hand these blank papers out as maps._

_Love, Hatter_

Alice could feel an annoyed twitch come to her eye, because Hatter forgot to tell Hare that they didn't have any maps, she was now completely and hopelessly lost in a dark and scary forest in some place that she didn't even know the name of. She sighed heavily again and curled her knees up to her chest, trying not to cry at the idea of being forever lost in this strange place where she had found that some of the trees had purple bark and pink leaves, much like the one she was currently under.

"Oh please, stop your annoying crying, really."

Alice looked up at the tree where the voice had come from, only to find that no one was there, and so she turned back to face forward, and suddenly found the Cheshire Cat staring at her with his bored, murky, yellow eyes.

"Hmph, little girls like you will get eaten by a bandersnatch if they wander too far in the forest." he told her

Alice said nothing, somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered what a bandersnatch was, but instead watched the Cheshire Cat as he walked languidly about her to look at the discarded non-map on the ground beside her.

"Hatter likes to play tricks on people more than I do." the Cheshire Cat commented, kicking the map away.

Alice stared at the Cheshire Cat for a long time, and his tail started to swish in a rather annoyed matter, before she suddenly got up from where she had been seated and brushed the dirt off of her blue dress, "Well then, would you happen to know how I might get to where this Queen lives?"

"The Queen of Hearts you mean?"

"Yes, I believe so, you see Hare said-."

"I don't quite care for whatever either Hare or Hatter might have said to you, can't say I like them."

"Well I can't say they like you very much to have an alarm against you." Cat made an 'hmph' sound and turned around from her, "Well then, do you know how to get to the castle?"

Cat turned back to Alice and answered, "Well, as it would happen I do."

"Wonderful, then can you tell me how to get there?"

"Yes, I can." and there was an expectant silence after the Cheshire Cat said these words, he merely standing there, making Alice feel quite small with how he towered over her.

"Well, are you going to tell me how to get there any time soon?"

"You only asked if I knew how to get there, I do, and then you asked me if I _could_ tell you how to get there, and I can; but you didn't ask if I _would_ tell you, and I _won't_." he told her, smiling his large, toothy smile.

"And why not?"

"Hm, I suppose," here the Cheshire Cat merely looked up as he thought for not a full minute before finally saying, "because you didn't say please." and then he walked off some ways away from the path that Alice had been following, and so she followed after him to give him a good yelling at, but instead found she could not keep up with his quick, long strides and found herself quite perplexed at how lost she now was.

"Oh dear, and I haven't even anything to eat since I left that pack at the tree." Alice said aloud to herself as she wandered deeper into the forest, the sun setting somewhere beyond the leaves, letting the forest fall into a sinister look with shadows playing their mean tricks on the poor girl.

She leant against a peculiar long green tree, thinking nothing of how it was smooth rather than rough like the other trees, and put her head on her knees and began to cry. It was a sad sort of crying that was very real, and most people walking about might have been tempted to help the girl were they to have seen her crying, but as fate would have, there were no people walking about her area at that time, not that Alice could see that through her tears.

"Oh, there, there, now, dear, why on earth are you crying?" a motherly and concerned voice asked from somewhere, Alice wasn't sure where since she couldn't quite get herself to be bothered enough to try and figure out for herself.

"I-I'm lost," Alice replied, sniffling, "I-I was given a, a fa-fake map." she elaborated in between her crying sniffles, "And I have no, no cl-clue as to h-how to get to, to any-anywhere."

"Oh, you poor little dear, there, there, now don't let anyone tell you, you can't cry, everyone needs a good long cry every now and then to let it all out." the motherly voice told her, seeming to put what felt strangely like a shawl on her shoulders, now Alice could her other female voices talking quietly amongst themselves and to each other. Alice decided to follow the motherly voice's advice and cried for a good hour or so, adding all the rest of her sadness into the little sob fest, after her long cry Alice did indeed feel much better. "Do you feel better now dear?" the motherly voice asked Alice, having heard the crying stop some time ago.

"Yes, actually, much better." Alice replied, her head still on her knees.

"Good, now another good thing to do after a nice long cry, is to sleep, you just stay here, you'll be safe, I promise you." the motherly voice responded, and Alice decided that since the motherly voice had been right so far in all that she had told Alice, that she would follow the voice's advice again, and let her eyes close to sleep, feeling safe and secure with the motherly voice.


	4. The Flowers and Advice from a Caterpilla

A/N: Hello, I've been rather busy with school, especially since we recently had midterms and all, and then I had three projects to do in one week, I was nearly failing a class(I'm passing now, don't know what with, but I'm passing), and we got 44th place out of fifty two bands in our final marching band competition, but on the bright side, no more Saturdays wasted for marching band competitions, and I have written two additional chapters and lengthened many of the others that were really quite short for this story, so not all was in vain. I decided to publish these two chapters in honor of Halloween :D I'm gonna go trick or treating with my mom pretty soon; wow, I'm really pathetic, I'm fifteen years old, I have my Jack Skellington costume for Halloween that I put together little over a week, and I'm gonna go trick or treating, not with friends, but with my mom .... ah well, at least I can accept myself for myself. Anyway, I hope you all have a nice time yourselves tonight, whether going to a party, trick or treating, or staying home to watch scary movies, be safe, don't eat already open candy or homemade candy, go to only the houses with the lights on, stick with the people you know, and don't summon forth spirits/demons from an alternate dimension, or hell, that will either kill/possess you, take over the world, or destory the human race. Happy Halloween! XD

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Alice's sleep was disturbed by the bright light of the sun shining down on her face, she blinked blearily, yawning softly and letting her arms stretch a good bit, feeling quite refreshed, after having cried for so long, indeed the motherly voice was right, a nice sleep was absolutely delightful after such a good cry.

"Oh, that's good, you're awake now dear."

Alice looked about in search of the motherly voice, but found no one in sight near any of the strange, tall, green trees in what appeared to be something of an orchard of these strange trees.

"Up here dear." the motherly voice said, coming from somewhere up the green tree, and so Alice looked up to find a flower with a human, slightly elderly, female face; she recognized the flower as one she often saw growing in moss patches, but unlike those flowers, the flower itself was alone rather than in a whole group.

Alice was really very confused, and quite curious, over how it was possible for a flower to grow so tall or for it to have such human characteristics, and better yet, how it could be so very kind to her, like how a mother _should_ be; of course her ideal of how a mother should be was only brought to Alice's head through all the books she had read, since Mother rarely acknowledged her presence.

"Now, I know you must be quite hungry, so here's some honey, had the bees bring some in, since they owed us anyway." the motherly flower said, handing Alice a comb of honey, which Alice took into her hand, it was wrapped in a leaf, so that she wouldn't get her hands sticky, but she gazed up at the flower confusedly.

"I-I'm terribly sorry if I seem rude, what with you being so nice to me and all, I really am thankful for your kindness, but you're a flower, aren't you?" Alice asked, rather than eat the honey that had been given to her.

"Yes, I am, now stop asking questions and eat, you're thin as a bone you are." the flower instead told her in a stern voice, and deciding it best not to anger a flower who acted so motherly, Alice ate as much of the honey as her stomach would allow before it felt sick and told her if she ate any more of the sweet stuff that she would soon be seeing it again.

"Thank you very much for the honey." Alice said, wrapping the rest of the honey comb tightly into the leaf, making sure it wouldn't open by accident, and then placed it in a pocket in the white apron over her blue dress.

"You had best be grateful, I was the one who had to negotiate with those bees for that honey." a new female voice interjected rudely, Alice looked over at the voice to find that it was a yellow narcissus flower that had spoken this time.

"Um, well, thank you very much then." Alice replied, standing properly to curtsy towards the flower, who seemed rather pleased with the young blond now.

Numerous childish, and very girlish, giggles were heard and Alice turned to look over at a patch of daisies, barely taller than her, who were all giggling at the sight of her and whispering to one another which led to more eruptions of giggles and laughter. The motherly flower shushed them and scolded the daisies for being rude to their guest.

"Well, would any of you happen to know the way to the castle from here?" Alice asked the flowers, who all then began to speak loudly amongst themselves about which way was the best, soon enough they all completely forgot Alice was there to begin with and were just arguing amongst themselves.

Alice was tapped on the shoulder by the motherly moss flower who bent low and whispered, "Just go that way, that caterpillar might know something." and so Alice ran off in the direction she had been pointed to, hoping to run into this 'caterpillar' quite soon because she was getting scared by the again quickly darkening forest.

Alice grew rather confused as she continued walking, there were no more of the strange tall trees with their pink trunks and purple leaves, but instead there were only tall, thick, leafless, green trees, like the stems of the flowers she had just met. Alice wondered over this, when she finally noticed a large clearing ahead of her, from where much smoke was being emitted and what looked either like some green hump or a man in a lumpy green jacket was seated on a strangely shaped seat that vaguely reminded Alice of the mushrooms she would occasionally find in her backyard.

"Um excuse me?" the man must have not heard Alice for he did not acknowledge her, "Um, sir, I was wondering if you would help me, please, sir?" now Alice was beginning to get upset because now she was in front of the man, who she could now say for sure was a man, and instead he continued smoking from some strange tube like device, which if she were perhaps more knowledgeable about darker parts of the world, she would know the item to be a hookah, but since she was not, she only thought of the item as a strange tube like device. After going another ten minutes without being acknowledged by the man Alice had had enough, "Sir, I should quite like that you pay attention to me, please!"

The man looked lazily at Alice with glazed over, black eyes, he took a deep breath from his hookah and then in a slow, breathy voice with smoke spilling out of his mouth, he asked, "Whooo ... are ... you?"

"I am Alice, and you are?" she replied, staring at the man, who was quite a bit taller than her, with black eyes that stood out on a pale, pale face and black hair, and while he wore a green lumpy jacket, underneath was a nice, but crumpled white shirt, a pair of wrinkled black pants and, strangely enough, he had no shoes.

The man took another deep breath off his hookah, "I ... am ... the Caterpillar."

Alice was quiet a while before asking, "Is that a title too?"

"Yes ... Lawrence Vanchre ... the Caterpillar." Lawrence lay back on the strange mushroom shaped chair, disregarding Alice and just taking breaths off his hookah.

"Um, Lawrence?" Lawrence glared at her with glazed eyes, "Mr. Vanchre?" his glare lightened slightly, but it was still a fierce glare, "Caterpillar?" the glare was gone and replaced with the lazy glazed look, "Caterpillar, might you tell me how to get to the castle from here?"

Lawrence glanced at her lazily and took another deep breath, then he forced his body from the waist up, to raise itself so he could look at Alice, "Grow ... another ... five feet." was his reply.

"What do you mean?" was Alice's question.

"I ... am ... three inches ... quite tall ... if I ... say so ... myself." Laurence answered, taking breaths off his hookah.

"No, I am five feet, precisely; I should hate to be three inches." Alice replied.

The glazy look in his eyes was quickly diminishing and his glare was growing deeper as he set his hookah to the side, "I quite like being three inches, thank you."

"Well then, that's good for you, but I should like to not be less than three inches for any longer and to find my way to the castle."

Lawrence continued to glare at Alice for a while, but he picked up his hookah again and continued breathing from it, "Right is growing ... left is shrinking." and he lay down again.

"What?"

"The mushroom ... eat the right and grow ... eat the left and shrink." and Alice saw smoke rise off of the top of the mushroom and into the air.

Lawrence then remained quiet and Alice felt that she should not speak again, so she tore off a piece of the mushroom from the right and from the left, and while Lawrence breathed off of his hookah Alice, walked quite a ways away from him before she removed the pieces of mushroom and ate a good sized piece off of the one on the right. She grew to be too tall, taller than the purple leaved trees about her and so tall that she almost knocked over a bird's nest, quite upsetting the bird that had been seated there. Well, Alice supposed it was a bird, it had wings and a nest, like most birds do, but instead of a regular beak it had a trumpet and trumpeted at Alice in annoyance.

So Alice quickly took a slightly smaller sized bite of the left piece of the mushroom, which she noticed had a slightly minty tang sort of flavor in opposition to the sweet cherry flavor of the right side of the mushroom. She shrunk down to a much more agreeable height and after judging with a nearby tree, Alice decided that she had indeed shrunk to a proper height for herself and so she continued walking in search of the castle that she had been searching for quite some time now.

It was proving to be a very stubborn castle that decided it did not wish to be found.


	5. The Pool of Tears and the Duchess

A/N: Now then, first off I would like to give a very huge thak you to James Birdsong who always reviews, James Birdsong, here is a virtual cookie, since I cannot message you since you do not have an account on here to which I may reply to your reviews with an actual PM. Secondly, I hope everyone had a more fun Halloween than I did, I didn't get to go trick or treating, I got stuck handing out candy to the trick or treaters, on the bright side I scared a lot of people by standing on top of my mailbox and pretending to be a statue and then moving when they got close enough to give them their candy; but a lot of people thought I was Micheal Jackson, :'( I was Jack Skellington, people, gosh darnit. Now enough about me, this chapter is relatively short, even though I added some more to it, I just can't think of two good seperate plots for both of these events, so I meshed them together, and even then, the plot idea was rather short.

Now then, RER! Read, Enjoy, Review!

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Alice walked on and on and on some more, before the forest about her suddenly made way for a pool of water, which she looked into very closely, the water seemed quite blue and very deep, so deep that Alice was quite sure that even on the very tips of her toes she would not touch the bottom. Alice was paying no attention to how deeply she was leaning perhaps, her subconscious told her _not_ to worry since Sister would surely pull her away when she got too close to the edge of the pool, and so instead she fell into the pool. She quickly resurfaced, flailing her limbs about as she was not much of a swimmer, thanks to her parents normally keeping her away from the pond that was in their backyard.

Alice spat out the water that had snuck its way into her mouth, "Why is this water so salty?!" Alice cried still trying to keep from drowning.

"_Because they are tears_." a voice, which Alice was not paying as much attention to as she should, answered.

"Why is the water made of tears?" she asked, trying to swim back towards the ledge of the pool.

"_All the better to drown you with, my dear_." Alice then looked at the voice, to find it was a woman's head rapidly approaching her, but then it rose to reveal it was a crocodile that had the head of a beautiful woman on top of its crocodile head; the sight of this crocodile caused Alice to quickly learn how to swim as fast as she possibly could, climb out and then grip for dear life onto the firm, warm object that was suddenly in front of her, she heard the crocodile sink beneath the water and finally relaxed again.

"Little girls should not be playing in pools of tears."

Alice looked up to find it was Cat that she was gripping so tightly onto, she quickly released him and jumped a good distance away from him, almost falling into the pool again, but he grabbed her arm before she could and righted her.

"You know, you do cry a lot." he stated, looking out at the calm surface of the pool, which was entirely out of place in the forest.

"What are you talking about?" Alice asked, growing extremely defensive, especially since she had always taken extreme precautions to make sure that no one ever saw or heard her all those times that she did cry, late at night and alone in her tower.

"This pool is full of all the tears you have thus shed in your life." Cat answered, "What _are_ you doing out here anyway?"

"Well, I'm looking to find the castle." she answered.

"Why would you look for the castle?"

"Well, Hatter and Hare told me I look very much like the Queen, and I might be the long missing princess, so I have decided to look for the castle and find if this is true or not." Alice replied, a happy smile on her face at the thought of finding a mother that might truly care for her.

Cat stared at her for the longest time before he suddenly burst into laughter, like a clatter of plates against hardwood floor, reminding Alice of the time she knocked over the cabin of china by accident and she received such a lashing from Father when he came rushing in at the sound of her scream combined with the breaking of china; Alice vaguely recalled how he hadn't even seen all the extent of the broken china, and his completely ruined, favorite armchair, and was instead yelling at her for nearly getting herself killed.

"What is so funny?" she asked, growing angry and placing her hands on her hips angrily.

Cat just kept laughing and shook his head at her, soon he disappeared, leaving his laughing mouth behind, before that too disappeared.

"A grin without a cat, no matter how often I might see it, is still the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life." Alice stated.

Alice realized quite quickly that standing about in wet clothes was both quite cold and not a very smart idea, and so she continued walking, careful to avoid the edge of the pool, especially after she saw the still waters move just the slightest bit with whatever else there might have been in those waters. Alice walked quite a long ways when she came across a house, and as any sensible person would, she wondered what a house was doing this far in the forest and so she approached the door and knocked. From inside Alice could hear rather loud, obnoxious, and not at all very good singing and an even louder wailing from what she could easily tell was a young child.

The door opened to be answered by a very tall, very well dressed, frog; a frog, answered the door, and not only that, he was standing just as a man would and then he looked down at Alice.

The singing suddenly stopped and the voice shouted, "Oh just let her in!"

The frog merely, lazily nodded and moved aside for Alice to enter and went off away from the house with a parcel in his hand, it seemed like a very important parcel.

"Have a nice day, sir." Alice said to the frog, curtsying to him, before he left, he merely slowly blinked his eyes, before bowing lowly to her and then going off on his way.

Alice hesitantly entered through the open door and found the house to be made of one main room, which consisted of the kitchen, with a large fire pit which had a large black kettle in it, over which some woman was hovering as she complained loudly about how loud it was, how she never received any respect for all the work she did, and for whatever reason she kept adding more and more pepper to whatever sort of soup or stew she was making; she was really quite an ugly looking woman and Alice was thankful that she mostly kept her face hidden. The woman who had done all the singing and yelled at Alice to come in, was a bit large, that is to say, 'large-boned', and her face, well, while not pretty, was at least not as ugly as the cook's; in her arms she carried a large white bundle from which the crying emerged.

"Oh, hello, now who are you?" the large boned lady asked, rocking the crying child in her arms.

"I am Alice; it is a pleasure to meet you, um?" Alice began and pausing in her curtsy, due to her not knowing the woman's name.

"I am the Duchess." the woman replied, the baby cried louder and so she continued to sing to it:

_"Speak roughly to your little boy__  
__and beat him when he sneezes__  
__he only does it to annoy__  
__because he knows it teases.__  
__I speak severely to my boy__  
__I beat him when he sneezes__  
__for he can thoroughly enjoy__  
__the pepper when he pleases"_

Alice's eyes went wide at the lyrics, and even wider at the sight of the baby, it was really quite an ugly thing and it kept sneezing and crying so that Alice felt quite sorry for it.

"Such a handsome little boy isn't he?" the Duchess asked, rocking the poor baby violently.

"Um, yes, quite." Alice replied, deciding that insulting a Duchess's baby was much too rude a thing to do.

"Now Alice was it, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, well, you see, I am terribly lost and were hoping you might tell me how to get to the castle."

"Oh, but dear, you're only a child, children shouldn't go to the castle, especially on this day, there's going to be a trial you know?"

"But, Duchess, I must go to the castle, it might help me to get back home."

"No no, children should not go to the castle; they should be seen, not heard, but perhaps in your case you shouldn't be seen either." the Duchess replied, "Here, just stay and have some pepper, it's good for you."

Alice was extremely offended now, not only was she constantly being referred to as a child, though she was a full fourteen years of age, but she was also being called ugly by this woman who was the ugliest woman she had ever seen, besides the cook of course, "Well now, I've never-"

Before Alice could continue with what she was about to say, the Duchess noticed the clock on the wall above the hearth and cried out, "Oh dear, I must be leaving now, the Queen's croquet game to get to and all, here hold onto him." and with that the Duchess left the baby in Alice's hands and she left the house, leaving behind the ugly cook, the unattractive baby, and Alice.

"Oh my, what should I do now?" Alice wondered aloud, the cook didn't seem to care for Alice or the still crying and sneezing baby and was instead focused on adding even more pepper to the soup or stew, and so Alice decided to do the poor crying baby a favor and took him away from the house. Once outside Alice found she was having quite a difficult time holding onto the baby, and his cries and sneezes started to sound very strange.

"Now you listen here, you, I am trying to do you a favor, so you had best be grateful." Alice told the child, instead he kept fussing and so she moved him from her shoulder to look at him in the eye while she scolded him, but instead she dropped the baby and out of the bundle of blankets came a pig, which snorted and went on his merry way.

Alice was quite surprised and merely stood there for some time before saying, "Well, he certainly makes a much more handsome pig than he ever did a baby."


	6. The White Rabbit, at Last!

A/N: Yeah, very short chapter, just thought I'd give you a fair warning, could not think up a plot longer than this, because I didn't feel like going through with what happens at the White Rabbit's house in the book. So, I'm publishing this, when really, I should get started on those two posters I have to do for tomorrow, or writing those data charts for my lab work in chemistry, which I really hate with a passion, or reading that chapter in my history book for the test I have on it tomorrow, or even studying for the series of four state practice tests that I'll be having all this week, oh so many things I _should_ be doing, but am not, not right now anyway, I'll get to it once I'm done here. Again, thank you to James Birdsong, such a diligent reviewer, why aren't there more of you like that, will it make you feel better if I say that I always reply to any and all reviews that I get, or I try to for a majority of them, not that I've ever had that sort of problem before, never had so many reviews that I couldn't reply to all of them.

Anyway, RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

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Alice walked along for quite some time more, before she arrived at a small clearing, with a very nice little house in it. The house was a nice white cream sort of color, with blue shutters that had little anchor details, which she supposed was for the fact that she could hear the crash of the ocean not too far away. The lawn was well tended, a full green color with a white picket fence around the edge and blue flowers growing around the fence and near the house. The flowers were quite strange because they instead looked suspiciously like violins and she could swear that whenever the wind made them sway they would make some little noise like one would hear from a violin.

Alice walked up to the house and glanced at the nice, elegant, mailbox that was situated in front of the gate to the house, in front of the mailbox was a large, brown package with the following address on it:

_The White Rabbit, Aaron Earsten, Esquire to the Queen of Hearts_

_7777 Place by the Sea Lane_

_83957 Heart County, Wonderland_

"Esquire to the Queen of Hearts, then he _must _know how to get to the castle!" Alice exclaimed, happy to have finally found someone who might help her out of her predicament.

"_**Maria!**_" an angry voice shouted, making Alice turn around to see a very familiar man although she had never actually seen him before.

The man in question was dressed exactly the same way that the toy rabbit that had first led Alice to this strange place, called Wonderland apparently, had been. He had the same formal attire of a nice red coat, pressed white shirt, black pants, but he had no glasses on and was squinting very much at Alice to try and identify her. It was easy for Alice to understand that without his glasses, he was really quite blind and mistook her for whoever Maria was. Which was really quite strange, considering that he had rabbit ears and a tail, and even red eyes like most of the white rabbits that Alice had seen, so he really should have had better eyesight since as a rabbit he should have eaten more carrots?

"What on earth are you doing, dilly dallying about like this?! Well get to it, there is still much to do inside, you know I must be getting to the Queen's castle soon, and I cannot leave unless the house is in perfect condition." he snapped at Alice, rushing her into the house, which was extremely well kept, very clean, quite well decorated, a little barren, and very cold feeling, as though no one actually lived there.

Alice still tried to at least pretend to clean, since Aaron, or the White Rabbit, or Earsten, or whatever it was that Alice should call him, kept hovering over her like a hawk to make sure she didn't miss a spot, with how much he complained about her missing spots, she thought that perhaps he, with his currently "blind" eyes, should clean the house instead.

She soon found a pair of gold wire frame glasses that she immediately recognized from when he had first arrived to her as a toy rabbit and led her to Wonderland by diving under her bed, which she still did not understand how that worked as she was quite sure that the numerous times she had gone under her bed before, she had never been led to a place like Wonderland.

"Um, Sir, I found your glasses." she told him, showing him the glasses she had found.

"Oh, why thank you Maria, I hadn't even noticed they went missing." and then he tucked them into his coat pocket, "Now get to work, I must be leaving soon, still have to do go find that person to bring her to the Queen."

Alice decided now was the best time to question the man about the Queen, "Oh really, might I ask who this person is, Sir?"

"Hmph, I cannot give such information to you, Maria. You are a commoner, and a housemaid at that, this sort of information is completely out of your league."

"Oh, um, I'm sorry, Sir." Alice was actually very upset with this man, being so rude to his own help, such a horrible character; she decided she did not like him _at all_.

"You missed another spot, what is with you today; really, you're more worthless than usual. You know what, that is more than enough, if you cannot be a proper maid today Maria, then I suggest that you go home." he told Alice, not yet bothering to put his glasses on.

Alice stood up timidly, and bowed her head in shame to the taller man, feeling a bit bad that she had now given this Maria person a bad reputation with her employer, "I'm very sorry, Sir." and she curtsied to him before leaving the house, completely forgetting to ask him about how to get to the castle, and by the time she did remember, she was already well far away and no longer in need of that information.

Aaron Earsten on the other hand, placed his glasses on, and pulled out a pocket watch from his coat pocket, he frowned at the time; he was running out of time to find that girl and bring her to the Queen. He _could __**not**_ be late on this, or the Queen would see his head off; and Aaron, being the White Rabbit and Esquire to the Queen, was quite fond of having his head on his body, thank you. So off he went to find the girl who he had brought into Wonderland and take her to the Queen before time ran out.


	7. Tweedledum and Tweedledee

A/N: Gah, I'm sorry, I've been so busy lately, I had practice state testing all the week before, a project to start and finish during the weekend, and this past week has been a bother to me, I was almost failing my chemistry class so I had to focus on that, I had a 73, now I have a 77, so yes I've definitely improved, and hopefully I will continue doing so; for whatever reason I've just felt so panicked all this past week, but thankfully, my Fridays will be wasted no longer, the football team lost last night and we are no longer in the running for playoffs and so the season is over for us, finally. Anyway terribly sorry for being late, I've barely had any time to work on this story, I only have two more chapters already typed up on this story, I still have a lot to do though, after the one I'm still working on, there's probably another three or so chapters, so the story is relatively short, but I'm taking my sweet time typing it.

I would like to make it known, that I do respond to all reviews, so if you do review, you can bet I'm going to thank you for it, please review, if not for me, then for my sister's virtual pumpkin cheesecake pie that is quadrillion times better than the Cheesecake Factory's, and anyone that has ever eaten that delicious confection can honestly say, that is _not_ an exaggeration.

Disclaimer: The following poem, '_The Walrus and the Carpenter_' is the property of Lewis Carroll, part of the dialogue following that poem belongs also to him, but has been edited to better follow my writing style, I gain no monetary reward for typing this, just a review from James Birdsong, who is one of my three most favoritest people on this website, and any other people that might have the courage to finally review, but that(although very important) is besides the point.

RER(PP), Read Enjoy Review! (Pretty please?)

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Alice waked along for quite awhile when she decided to rest again. She was getting less tired less often now, she supposed it was because before she had never before had to walk so much back at home with Father, Mother, and Sister, but now that she had grown slightly accustomed to all the walking she could go a good while before having to rest again. She felt rather happy about this, she had never before been able to do something so physically challenging and although she had learned how to swim under extremely frightening circumstances, and she had learned how to swim, had she not? She felt very confident about this as she was positive that not even Sister knew how to swim or walk so long as she could, so she finally had something she could do better than Sister.

She came upon a log, and feeling a bit daring, she climbed atop it and balanced herself as she walked along. She watched her feet closely, to make sure she did not step wrong and instead fall off. She smiled at herself; she was being much more daring than she could have ever even dreamed of being back with Mother, Father, and Sister.

"Boo!"

Alice screamed at the sudden pair of voices that shouted and fell off the log and onto the hard ground, she rubbed at her sore bottom and glared at the two older boys who had scared her half out of her wits. A pair of twins who couldn't look more like the other if one of them was standing in front of a mirror, red hair that parted the same way, which made it more difficult to tell who was who, and green eyes; the twins were dressed in the same ensemble as well, a bright yellow shirt with blue suspenders from bright red pants, all in all, not the strangest thing Alice had seen since she had arrived to Wonderland, but still a bit bizarre for the young girl.

The two older boys, perhaps four years or so older than Alice, who you must recall is fourteen, grinned mischievously at her, reminding her vaguely of Cat, except he outdid both of the boys in the mischief he had in his own smile; not that Alice would purposefully notice such a thing as how Cat smiled, she was just observant is all.

"Well then, looks like the little miss fell down on her own, eh Tweedledum?" one of the boys asked the other.

"Yes, cause of how much we scared her, Tweedledee." Tweedledum told his twin.

"Well she fell on her own, we didn't push her."

"No we didn't, shall we fight about this then?" Tweedledum asked, already putting up his fists.

Tweedledee put up his own as well, "Why I do think we shall." and they both began throwing punches at each other, which rather confused Alice because one, they had agreed in what they were talking about, and two, they weren't even fighting, more like throwing very bad punches that kept missing.

"Excuse me?" Alice asked.

"Yes?" the two boys replied, stopping their fight to look at her and find out her question.

"Well, I should like to know if I am close to the Queen's castle right now."

"Would you like to hear a story?" they instead asked her, which Alice thought over for a short time, before deciding to nod her head, and so the twins began to tell a story, which turned out to be a poem, Tweedledee began it and they switched who was talking every verse.

"_The sun was shining on the sea,__  
__Shining with all his might:__  
__He did his very best to make__  
__The billows smooth and bright --_

_And this was odd, because it was__  
__The middle of the night.__The moon was shining sulkily,__  
__Because she thought the sun__  
__Had got no business to be there__  
__After the day was done --__  
__'It's very rude of him.' she said,__  
__'To come and spoil the fun!'__The sea was wet as wet could be,__  
__The sands were dry as dry.__  
__You could not see a cloud, because__  
__No cloud was in the sky:__  
__No birds were flying overhead --__  
__There were no birds to fly._

_The Walrus and the Carpenter__  
__Were walking close at hand:__  
__They wept like anything to see__  
__Such quantities of sand:__  
__'If this were only cleared away,'__  
__They said, 'it would be grand.'__'If seven maids with seven mops__  
__Swept it for half a year,__  
__Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,__  
__'That they could get it clear?'__  
__'l doubt it,' said the Carpenter,__  
__And shed a bitter tear.__'O Oysters, come and walk with us!__  
__The Walrus did beseech.__  
__'A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,__  
__Along the briny beach:__  
__We cannot do with more than four,__  
__To give a hand to each.'_

_The eldest Oyster looked at him,__  
__But never a word he said:__  
__The eldest Oyster winked his eye,__  
__And shook his heavy head --__  
__Meaning to say he did not choose__  
__To leave the oyster-bed.__Out four young Oysters hurried up.__  
__All eager for the treat:__  
__Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,__  
__Their shoes were clean and neat --__  
__And this was odd, because, you know,__  
__They hadn't any feet.__Four other Oysters followed them,__  
__And yet another four;__  
__And thick and fast they came at last,__  
__And more, and more, and more --__  
__All hopping through the frothy waves,__  
__And scrambling to the shore._

_The Walrus and the Carpenter__  
__Walked on a mile or so,__  
__And then they rested on a rock__  
__Conveniently low:__  
__And all the little Oysters stood__  
__And waited in a row.__  
_  
_'The time has come,' the Walrus said,__  
__'To talk of many things:__  
__Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --__  
__Of cabbages -- and kings --__  
__And why the sea is boiling hot --__  
__And whether pigs have wings.'__'But wait a bit,' the Oysters cried,__  
__'Before we have our chat;__  
__For some of us are out of breath,__  
__And all of us are fat!'__  
__'No hurry!' said the Carpenter.__  
__They thanked him much for that._

_'A loaf of bread,' the Walrus said,__  
__'Is what we chiefly need:__  
__Pepper and vinegar besides__  
__Are very good indeed --__  
__Now, if you're ready, Oysters dear,__  
__We can begin to feed.'__'But not on us!' the Oysters cried,__  
__Turning a little blue.__  
__'After such kindness, that would be__  
__A dismal thing to do!'__  
__'The night is fine,' the Walrus said,__  
__'Do you admire the view?'__'It was so kind of you to come!__  
__And you are very nice!'__  
__The Carpenter said nothing but__  
__'Cut us another slice-__  
__I wish you were not quite so deaf-__  
__I've had to ask you twice!'_

_'It seems a shame,' the Walrus said,__  
__'To play them such a trick.__  
__After we've brought them out so far,__  
__And made them trot so quick!'__  
__The Carpenter said nothing but__  
__'The butter's spread too thick!'__'I weep for you,'the Walrus said:__  
__'I deeply sympathize.'__  
__With sobs and tears he sorted out__  
__Those of the largest size,__  
__Holding his pocket-handkerchief__  
__Before his streaming eyes.__'O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,__  
__'You've had a pleasant run!__  
__Shall we be trotting home again?'__  
__But answer came there none --__  
__And this was scarcely odd, because__  
__They'd eaten every one._"

Alice frowned not quite liking how the story ended and the twins both noticed this, "Who did you like best?" they asked of her.

"I like the Walrus best," said Alice, "because you see he was a _little_ sorry for the poor oysters."

"He ate more than the Carpenter, though," Tweedledee interjected, "You see he held his handkerchief in front, so that the Carpenter couldn't count how many he took."

"That was mean!" Alice said indignantly. "Then I like the Carpenter best, since he didn't eat so many as the Walrus."

"But he ate as many as he could get," countered Tweedledum.

Now this just confused Alice and in a huff she proclaimed, "Well, then they were _both_ very unpleasant characters!" and she crossed her arms, finding Tweedledum and Tweedledee to also be very unpleasant now as well, "Now then, would you please tell me how to get to the castle from here?"

Instead of paying her any attention the twins had decided to suddenly dance, and were about to drag Alice into dancing with them, but instead she walked quickly away from them, and upon seeing what way she was going the twins shouted at her to go another way, but she didn't care to listen to them anymore and walked far away from the now more than concerned twins who dearly hoped she knew where she was going.


	8. Jabberwocky

A/N: Well, I finally finished the chapter I was working on, and I love it, I have no clue why, like barely a few seconds before I finished it I thought I would have to go through it and add or erase some things, but for whatever reason, when I finished I just loved it, it's a very weird sensation to hate something one second and the very next to love it, very weird. Anyway, while writing this, I was also reading _Through the Looking Glass Wars _so, yeah, if you've read that, please do ignore any similarities, obviously after I read that part of the book, I got inspired to write this, but please do acknowledge that the circumstances are completely different, like this Alice, is not spelled Alyss, nor does she have black hair, or Imagination, or an evil Aunt Redd who killed her family to crown herself Queen. I did kinda use the name Volcanic Plains though, and I am sorry that I was not creative enough to make up my own name for the place, please forgive me.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

Disclaimer: I acknowledge that Frank Beddor's work, _Through the Looking Glass Wars_, inspired the name of one of the locations in this chapter and most of this chapter, and the poem _Jabberwocky_ belongs to Lewis Carroll. I do not recieve any sort of monetary gain from writing this, merely a review from James Birdsong, who is the awesomest person ever for doing so, the gratification of a well written chapter, and a happy audience.

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Alice continued walking and walking, and walking some more, oh look, she walked even more, she could win the Olympics at this rate, whatever those were, she always heard Father talking about them and something about running, so she assumed that there must be something about walking later on in his conversation with whomever, only bits and fragments of which she could hear from her room in the first place.

She continued walking through the strange land with its purple and pink trees that were now fading to an ugly sort of brown and black that made the forest look as though it were rotten through and through. Alice wondered where in this strange, normally, by what she'd seen, quite bright and colorful place there could be such dull, dismal colors. The place was rocky, the air heavy and hot, soot that hung in the air was turning her once white apron into a sick yellow color and she had long ago taken to ripping off a piece of her apron to cover her mouth with it and make it easier to breathe. She was quite sure that she was going the wrong way now, but did not know which way she came from in the first place and so was unable to retrace her steps.

Alice soon found herself some ways from a cave, and hoping she might receive a reprieve from the hot air about her, she approached the front of the cave and immediately saw two, large, yellow eyes glaring at her, although knowing they did not, she dearly hoped they belonged to the Cheshire Cat.

The yellow eyes grew larger and larger as whatever owned them came forward; in front of Alice stood easily the terrifying creature she had ever seen in all her life, including the time where she saw Sister before she had gotten ready for the day; truly the second most horrifying thing she'd ever seen after the creature now in front of her.

Alice was suddenly picked up onto someone's shoulder and carried away as the creature ran towards her, she barely noticed a smaller version of the creature hiding back in the cave and even less did she realize that she knew the small creature to be the bigger one's baby, making the bigger one an overprotective mother. Finally she realized she was being pulled away by someone, who she did not know the identity of yet, she smacked the person to let her go and tell her where she was.

"Distance now, talk later." the voice replied, which she easily recognized, although having heard it only a few times in the past few days.

Since Alice was hanging over the person's shoulder, she could easily see the horrid creature coming in close on them, "It's getting closer." she told them.

"Damnit." Alice's eyes widened at the sound of this word, she always heard Father use it, and whenever he used it around Mother, she would tell him not to use such foul-mouthed language, and she wondered just why it was such a bad word.

She suddenly held onto her breath, what little was left, as it blew out in one quick breath and the air around her both pushed her sides together as hard as possible and tried to tear her in half, she couldn't see, everything was black and she felt too many details around her; then as quickly as it happened, it was already over.

Alice held onto the ground she landed upon quite firmly, and she gulped down as much air down her lungs as she could, thankful to be out of whatever that darkness was. Then she noticed that the air was no longer hot and heavy around her, and more importantly, that the ground beneath her was grassy, only it was blue, which at this point should not have surprised her as much as it did. She finally looked up about her and noticed a large waterfall, only it was falling up instead of down and the water was light green, not the sort of green common in water, but the sort of green that was, well, uncommon for water. The flowers around the pool of water were a strange shade of violet red that she had only before seen on a dress that Sister wore, and it was a _very_ pretty dress, as were the flowers, who currently were singing a song about borogroves, jub jubs, raths, toves, and jabberwockies, whatever those all were.

"Are you some sort of stupid?!" Cat shouted at Alice; yes, he was the one who saved Alice from that horrid creature, "I mean, even if you don't know where you're going, everyone stays away from the Volcanic Plains, that's where the jabberwockies are!"

Alice blinked at Cat momentarily, she was used to being yelled at, but the more he yelled at her for being stupid and almost getting killed by the jabberwocky, the more her chest was beginning to hurt. Suddenly Cat stopped yelling at her and was instead looking off to the side and apologizing to her, but then turned around, and while not leaving, he was not exactly paying Alice any attention. Alice wondered why he was acting like this, when she felt something wet land on her hand, she looked down at it to see it was a drop of water and a few more drops fell and joined it; she then touched her face and was able to feel the wet tears that had decided to fall from eyes.

"Stop crying already, it's annoying." Cat told her as he paced about, waiting for her to stop.

Alice wiped at her eyes quickly, and took a few calming breaths, "I'm fine." she told Cat, who turned back to her, "What is a jabberwocky?"

Cat stared at her, but then glanced back at the flowers, which had stopped their singing to listen to the argument, then they started again from the top and this time Alice really listened to them:

_"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves_

_Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;__  
__All mimsy were the borogoves,__  
__And the mome raths outgrabe.__"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!__  
__The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!__  
__Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun__  
__The frumious Bandersnatch!"__He took his vorpal sword in hand:__  
__Long time the manxome foe he sought—__  
__So rested he by the Tumtum tree,__  
__And stood awhile in thought.__And as in uffish thought he stood,__  
__The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,__  
__Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,__  
__And burbled as it came!__One, two! One, two! and through and through__  
__The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!__  
__He left it dead, and with its head__  
__He went galumphing back.__"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?__  
__Come to my arms, my beamish boy!__  
__O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"__  
__He chortled in his joy.__'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves__  
__Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;__  
__All mimsy were the borogoves,__  
__And the mome raths outgrabe."_

Alice blinked again, before turning back to Cat and replying, "Well that's good and all, but that doesn't quite tell me _what _a jabberwocky _is._"

Cat looked at her again like she was an idiot, which to him, she was, "That thing we were running from, was a jabberwocky."

"No, it was a mother." Alice corrected.

Cat looked at her again, "Fine, it was a _mother_ jabberwocky, one of, if not the, most dangerous creature, found here in Wonderland."

"So that's a jabberwocky." Alice said aloud to herself, "Now Cat, might you tell me just _how_ we got away from it?"

"Well, that's not exactly something a little girl like you needs to know about, now is it?"

"No, not precisely, but I should like to know nonetheless." Alice replied, to which she was answered with a roll of the eyes and a swish of the tail as he turned around and started walking away from her, and in reply to his action, Alice decided to follow him.

Cat glanced behind him and saw her following, but merely sped up, and very soon Alice was running to keep in step with the long-legged strides Cat took, and she was growing quite tired too, so tired that after some time she merely gave up on following him and instead ate some of the honey she still had from the flowers, like a long time ago that confrontation felt.

Alice looked about her and noticed she was again alone, and somewhere deep inside, she missed having Sister occasionally come to her room and sew quietly by the window while she herself played with her dolls; but Alice would not admit this to herself and instead recalled the times that Sister yelled at her, ignoring the fact that the yelling was often spurred by some dangerous action of Alice's.

"Do you really cry _that_ much?"

Alice glanced up at Cat who must have returned some time while she was thinking of this, and again, she was indeed crying, so she quickly wiped her eyes and stood up to continue on her way. She was walking for a short time when Cat called her attention to him.

"Ask the flowers, they know the way to the maze." and he disappeared through the trees with hardly a sound after him.

Alice then turned to take his advice and spoke with the flowers, which soon set her on the right path to whatever the maze was.


	9. The White Roses in the Red Garden

A/N: I am terribly sorry about this chapter's shortness, it's because I'm almost finished writing this story(so sad, I know T.T) and the last few chapters, which are only about two chapters away, are sort of long, so, yeah. Anyway as always, thank you to James Birdsong, ever the repeat reviewer, and my newest reviewer, Jhinra, who gave me the longest review for this story ever, and one of my all-time longest reviews, of any story! I love reviews, especially long ones that I can reply to; as always, all the reviewers get virtual cookies, good thing there's only two of you, but, like the bread in my family's pantry, the rest of the cookies will get virtual mold all over them, that is, unless I get more reviewers who I can give them to. Come on people, don't do it for me, do it for the virtual cookies!(I know I would :D)

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Alice continued to walk and walk and walk some more, for another week it felt like, although really it had only been three days, and finally she found herself in the maze that she had been told to look for by Cat.

The maze had many, many, red, red roses woven into the hedges. She felt as though she were walking in some sort of royal garden almost, that was when she arrived at a clearing in the maze to find a bemusing scene before her; a group of men, dressed up in strange uniforms, something like knights, or guards, with red hearts all over and each had a different number, one of them was a six, the other was a three, and the final one was a nine; these men were all around a tree which, unlike the rest of the garden, had white roses, they had one bucket of red paint between them and were turning all the roses red with it.

Alice could not help it, the sight was so strange and funny to her, that it almost seemed normal in this strange place, and so she laughed, quite loudly too, as the guards then turned their attention from the flowers, to Alice, who was not doing a very good job of keeping hidden from them, too busy with her laughing as she was.

When Alice did finally stop, it was to find the three men standing above and staring down at her angrily, they all were copies of the other, each with black hair and really, no faces, Alice would have easily gotten them confused if not for their different numbers. Now Alice was quite worried, she thought for certain that they might kill her, but instead they pulled her up and pushed her over towards the trees with the white roses and thrust a brush with red paint in her hand so quickly that in the confusion Alice began to help them with painting the white roses red.

"If the Queen sees this." Three said.

"Oh no, if the Queen sees this, no, no." Six worried.

"Stop it; I don't want to even think of it." Nine replied.

The three guards then mumbled some more worried statements as they painted the roses red.

"Excuse me, but might you tell me just _why_ are you painting these roses red?" Alice asked, quite wondering just what they meant about the Queen, if she had indeed somehow arrived at the castle without realizing it, and why she was now helping these guards with painting the roses.

"Well, you see how all these roses are red?" Nine asked, to which Alice nodded her head.

"It's because this is the Queen of Hearts' red rose garden." Six continued, Alice nodded her head again.

"And so it is disastrous that we let white roses grow in her _red_ rose garden." Three finished, again Alice nodded her head, seeing how this would be disastrous indeed, it made no sense at all to have white roses in a red rose garden, just none whatsoever.

"And if the Queen finds out, it's off with our heads." the three guards finished together, to which Alice gasped and her eyes went wide.

"No." she replied in disbelief, her mouth even falling open in her shock.

"Yes." the guards replied, as though they were instead speaking of a scandal instead of their probable death.

"No." Alice replied again, not wanting to believe this.

"Yes." the guards answered to her, getting a bit annoyed now.

"N-"

"Yes, already!" the guards shouted in unison, quite annoyed with the girl, and they then went back to painting the white roses.

Alice was silent for a while as she painted with them, but finally she gathered the courage she needed to ask them a question, "Um, pardon me, but I have been lost for some time, and I have no clue where it is I am, might you tell me?"

"This is the castle of the queendom of Wonderland." the three guards answered while they painted.

"Oh, thank you." she was silent again for a short time before asking, "And, well, you see, a while back I met the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, they both told me to come here because they said I-"

Alice never did get to finish her question, because that was when a screech of anger exploded about them and the guards were suddenly panicked and running about trying to hapdashly paint the rest of the roses red, even though they knew they were out of time to do so.

"What on earth are white roses doing in _my_ garden?" a voice more screeched than asked.

The guards immediately fell to the ground in a bow and dragged Alice into the bow as well, not allowing her to see the woman who was doing all the screeching and seemed to own the garden.

"Well?" the feminine voice asked, the guards stuttered replies at her, but before they could formulate a full sentence, she screamed. "Off with their heads!"

Alice was able to see out of the corner of her eyes as a different set of guards came took away Three, Six, and Nine; unlike Three, Six, and Nine, these guards had black clubs on their uniforms, as well as the numbers four, eight and ten, plus she could not see their non-faces, and they somehow made the young girl quite scared for whatever reason.

"You, who are you and what are you doing here?" the feminine voice asked, Alice felt her face being lifted with the cold end of a staff or something of the sort, when her face was lifted she finally saw the queen's face.


	10. The Queen's Game

A/N: First matter of business, Jhinra and James Birdsong are the most awesome reviewers, and I just realized I neglected all the people who favorited/alerted this story, so 'thank you's also go to Jhinra, but she already reviews, and zombiepie, yeah, she's the only other one. Well, turns out I'm something of a liar, cause I was lying without realizing it, I do that a lot, which is why my sister really does know me better than anyone else, because she can tell I'm lying when even I don't know I'm lying. What I mean is, appearently, there's still a good bit before the story is over, we're only about, halfway to two-thrids, through the story, because I plan for it to have either fifteen or twenty chapters now. This is because appearently what I wrote for the chapter after next, what happens after that, takes up a few more chapters than I had anticipated, and of course there's going to be an epilouge, possibly two if I think about it, and I still need to get Alice out of her predicament, which might take a while, especially since in school, I'm going to be busy, the semester is nearly over and Christmas break is coming up, so that means more projects, tests, and finals, which reminds me, I need to get started on turning my notes into a powerpoint, I need to get a notebook to paste my notes into, I have another powerpoint I really should get started on for French class, and I still have a lab report eleven more textbook questions, and a chapter summary to do for chem class that's all due tomorrow, *smackheadondesk* why do I do this to myself, I might be the Queen of Procrastination, but can I really do this? Find out next time in, A/N! Only on .

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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The Queen was a beautiful woman, with long flowing hair of golden sunshine and eyes of blue sapphire, and although Alice could tell she was about as old as Mother was, the Queen just somehow made the age seem so much younger than Mother could ever dream of doing.

"Well child, answer me." the Queen said, growing quite upset with Alice who instead had just been staring at her with awe.

"Um, that is, I was lost, I somehow ended up some ways outside the home of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, and they told me to find my way-"

"Your way?" the Queen asked, disrupting Alice's explanation, Alice was a bit confused by this, "This is my queendom, there is only _my_ way."

"Well, I tried to find _your_ way to your castle, since-"

"Very well then, but that doesn't quite matter, for we are about to start a game which I do truly love, and you will play with us, understood?" the Queen replied, and Alice was very quickly handed a bright pink flamingo and a purple hedgehog while the remaining soldiers, all of varying suits and numbers, arched themselves off the ground and the Queen set down her hedgehog, a bright, deep red color, while numerous other people joined the game, all with different colored hedgehogs.

While Alice awaited her turn for the game, which she found to simply be croquet, which she was really quite good at in truth; a man came up and stood next to her, he was very tall, with black hair that ran in a short tail behind him, Alice thought it just a bit strange, but otherwise paid it no mind, he stood next to her very quietly for a long time before suddenly turning to her and staring at her with brown eyes and saying, "I am the King of Hearts, it is a pleasure to meet you, um."

"Oh, I am Alice, Your Majesty." Alice replied, curtsying to him, she was really quite surprised to find that there was a king, she had assumed that there was none, what with all the focus on the queen and all, it was even called a queendom rather than a kingdom.

"Well, I trust you have had a pleasant stay so far here." the King suggested while looking on at the game, "You have, haven't you?"

"Um, well, considering my situation, I do believe it has been going fairly well." Alice replied, believing herself to have replied in a good manner that neither offended the king nor was too far off from the truth.

"Ah, that's good." the King replied, "It appears to be your turn." he told her and realizing it was indeed her turn, Alice hurried out to make her move.

Alice set the hedgehog on the ground before her and grabbed the flamingo to hit it, but the flamingo's head reared up while the hedgehog rolled away and then the flamingo decided to mess with Alice and tried to run under her dress while she still held it by its legs. This made Alice fall over completely and the flamingo and hedgehog both laughed loudly at her and when everyone else noticed what happened to her, they too started laughing at her.

The Queen seemed to instead grow extremely angry with everyone's laughter, and everyone noticed this, so their laughter stopped leaving only the sounds of Alice's struggle with the flamingo and the hedgehog. The Queen quietly approached the struggle, and glared down at them, the hedgehog was the first to notice, so he rolled up into a ball and rolled away as quickly as he could, which was much faster than one would have assumed for a hedgehog to roll away, then the flamingo noticed, so he flapped away from the scene like his wings were on fire. Alice was the only one left and she was rearranging her dress, then she realized how the Queen glared down at her, she carefully rose to her feet, head still down, and awaited scolding from the woman.

"Never, let that take place again." were the only harshly said words that left the Queen's mouth as she turned around quickly, dress swishing about her in silent anger, and walked away towards her own croquet set.

Alice felt immensely better once the Queen had left, and decided that since she could not find her croquet equipment again, she would instead stand to the side; while she was scolded, the King had left his place and went off to talk with someone else, but she was instead joined by, of all people, the Duchess.

"Oh, Alice my dear, how frightening that must have been, greater people than you have gotten on her worse side for less." she told Alice.

"Um, thank you for your concern, Duchess." Alice replied, wondering just what it meant to be on the Queen's bad side.

"Oh, did you hear about the trial that is supposed to take place today?" the Duchess asked, Alice was easily able to tell by her eager tone, that like many of the maids in the house that Alice lived in, the Duchess was a gossiper, and she did not even await a response from Alice before continuing, "It's against that man who tried to kill Sir Time all those years ago, well, I suppose you would have been too young to recall it, how old are you dear, what seven, before you were even born, it happened over ten years ago."

"I would have been four then." Alice replied, trying to stand straighter, hoping it would make her look older.

"Yes, yes, dear, well, it was also around that time that the Princess of Hearts went _missing_, poor girl, only four at the time, everyone was _certain_ that it was the same person who tried to kill Sir Time that kidnapped the Princess, but they recently found that man, and he said he barely saw a glimpse of the girl when he was in the castle, and besides that, there was no trace whatsoever within his abode that a girl might have lived there at _any_ time, oh and listen to this, he was living with another man, and they had only _one_ bed between them." the Duchess waggled her eyebrows, as though hinting at something, but Alice, being quite naive and innocent, did not understand the innuendo, she merely believed that the Duchess was implying that the two men were so poor that one of them had the bed to sleep in while the other slept on the ground.

Alice turned to look as there suddenly seemed to be some sort of commotion at a nearby entrance, mostly from women who were swooning over something or other.

"Oh, it seems the White Rabbit is finally back, oh my, he's such a handsome young man, any woman, even a young girl such as yourself, would be lucky to have his attention for even a second."

"You don't mean, Aaron Earsten, do you?" Alice asked, for in that she would have to not agree with the Duchess, having found the man to be quite rude when she met him for the first time ever some time ago, although then again, she had snuck into his house and was mistaken for his house maid, and according to him, was doing a very bad job at her work.

"Is there any other?" the Duchess asked with a smirk on her face, "Ah, if only I were just ten years younger," Alice immediately amended this statement for the woman in her head, changing the ten to a fifty, "I would have that poor man wrapped around my little finger I tell you."

"What did you mean by, 'finally back'?" Alice asked, curious as to what was the reason for him being gone for so long.

"Oh well, you see, it's supposed to be a secret, so naturally everyone knows, it's rumored, that he might have found the missing Princess of Hearts." the Duchess replied, "Of course, it's yet to be affirmed if he did indeed find her, or if that was even the reason he left in the first place."

Alice merely nodded as she looked over at the man who was now surrounded by the female members of the party, who all seemed to be swooning over him. Alice on the other hand just looked on strangely, admittedly she did read many fairy tales with handsome princes and she supposed the White Rabbit counted as handsome; but since she already knew him to have a bad personality, she could not bring herself to care for him to any degree other than that she considered him rude.

The Duchess continued talking about gossip, and while not Alice's favorite subject or something she understood at all, Alice attempted to stay concentrated on the conversation, alas, she failed, and her mind wandered away. Thankfully the Duchess was a large talker and never really asked questions or expected replies it seemed. Alice was quite glad for this because now the Duchess was talking about politics and the economy, which were things Alice understood even less about.

"Well, it is now time for the trial!" the Queen announced, and so everyone started filing away towards some segment of the maze, and the Duchess dragged Alice along before she could even think of arguing against going.

Off Alice went, to the trial that would soon change what she had last supposed of her life.


	11. The Trial

A/N: Yeah, for once you get something very long, it's seven pages and 400 short of 5000 words(minus this note that is) -.-'' Sorry, I guess it's to make up for all the short chapters you get and not updating during the weekend like I normally do? I had an actual life going on for once this past weekend, I went to a party on Friday and didn't get back home until almost two in the morning, then my sister was having a bonfire at our house on Saturday, I didn't participate because the people she invited were all her friends, but still, it distracted me a bit. Then I had a bunch of homework, which I didn't even do half of because I forgot most of it existed.

Now enough about my life, time to thank all of the people who have reviewed/favorited/alerted this story since I last updated, big virtual cookies to jocelyn1234, cause she added me to her favorite authors list _and_ reviewed :D, Jhinra and James Birdsong as always for reviewing, and Amarylis Cemetery for alerting this story, you guys are all super awesome for doing that stuff for me, love you all to bits and pieces, not to worry though, not really to bits and pieces, then you wouldn't be able to review, favorite, or alert, but you know what I mean.

For whatever reason, I really like this chapter, and it explains so very many things about Hatter and a little about Cat, not very much about Hare though, more on those two isn't until the next chapter, which I hope you guys don't think sucks, you'll know why in about a week or so, like always.

Anyway, RER, Read Enjoy Review!

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Alice walked with the other members of the party through a long winding maze of red rosed hedges, until they reached a tall, grand, wooden door, it opened inwards to admit all of them into a large, palatial looking room, with such clean tiled floors that Alice could see her face shining out of them, like a perfect mirror; the walls had intricate moldings and were painted with beautiful murals from what Alice could only guess were scenes from Wonderland's history, the murals had depictions of fallen Jabberwockies in the Volcanic Plains, coronations of past Queens of Hearts, and epic battles with foreign people over numerous things, in each one the Wonderlanders seemed to emerge victorious. The murals were complimented with marble sculptures of the royal family and important historical figures, or so Alice assumed, who ranged from regular looking people like Alice, to those who were stranger, like Cat and the White Rabbit, as well as those who seemed stranger still. Alice tilted her head up to find an enormous crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling, where again there was another mural, only this time it was the Queen's face staring imperiously down at them, making Alice feel very small and insignificant indeed.

The group approached an even larger set of doors that were made of some material that although not seeming to be wood, but had a sort of greenish crystalline look to it that shined in the glow of the chandelier. The doors opened easily, softly, and quickly, not at all how Alice had expected, she had thought they would be rather heavy, but it seemed they were lighter than even the size of an average door, yet as she got closer to the door and touched its surface secretly, she found the material to be very hard and of the sort that anyone would have said the door should be heavy, well except for the natives to the land, for why else would they use the material if this was so?

If Alice had thought the entrance room to be palatial, then the room they just entered was simply magnificent, it was made in much the same manner as the one before, but it seemed as though the artist that had made the murals here, used both judgmental scenes and the crystalline substance in his paints. It seemed to be a sort of courtroom, for there was a large amount of seats for an audience, and a high pedestal for two people, here the Queen of Hearts and her King were currently seated, next to their pedestal was a smaller one, where a witness should be seated Alice assumed, and not too far from there, off to the side was another set of twelve seats, where the jury was to sit; Alice knew this all from the law books Father had, she often got bored with only her fairytales to read and would often sneak into Father's office and take a book or two for a change in pace.

The party was directed to take seats in the ones set up for the audience, while from some door that Alice had not before noticed, came out a set of twelve people who sat in the seats for the jurors. Somehow in the confusion of the party intermingling, Alice was separated from the Duchess and was seated in the front next to a very tall man with very blond hair, very green eyes, which she felt she might have seen elsewhere, but could not recall just where, and very white skin. He wore some intricate yellow suit, quite reminding her of the one that the Caterpillar ad worn, only not nearly so wrinkled, and he wore a deep scarlet red cravat, he also had a black chain coming from his breast pocket, which Alice found stranger still, since Father also sometimes had a chain coming from his breast pocket as well, but his was gold and led to a pocket watch, and Alice had never before seen a black pocket watch.

The man seemed to notice Alice's staring and raised an eyebrow at her, "They let children come to these trials now, how crass of the Queen." he said aloud to her, which made Alice frown.

"I am not a child, I am fourteen, and I also happen to be good friends with the Duchess." Alice replied, which was something of the truth, if a bit bent to her will.

He stared at her quietly a while before a small smile found its way onto his face and he chuckled lightly, "You are funny girl, friends with that woman, I didn't realize anyone could with her."

"My name is not 'girl'," Alice replied, not at all liking this man, finding him very rude and of bad character, "my name is Alice."

The man then smiled strangely, "Well then, allow me to introduce myself as well Miss Alice, I am Justin Time." Alice furrowed her brows together.

"Yes, you did just make it in time for the trial, but what is your name?" she did not realize that he was not saying 'just in time.' but rather '_Justin Time_'

He chuckled a bit more loudly, "No dear, my first name is Justin, and my last is Time."

"Oh, I'm very sorry then for not realizing at first, Mr. Time." Alice replied, he actually laughed quietly a bit and Alice again furrowed her brows at this, but before she could ask what was so funny, the Queen of Hearts ordered for silence.

"Everyone, quiet or it's off with your head!" that was exactly what she said, and immediately everyone was silent as the grave.

A small woman who was seated at the bottom of the pedestal, in front of a typewriter typed away as she announced, "Now then, we shall begin with the trial of the once Sir Mark "Hatter" Time, charged for the following crimes of treason, attempted murder, possible murder, possible kidnapping, and relations with a minor that are deemed unseemly, and the commoner Jason "Hare" Ears is charged for treason and the crime of aiding a criminal."

Once this was said, two men were brought out by a set of men in black suits with the numbers, two of spades, four of spades, eight of spades, and ten of clubs; Alice recalled the men who had taken away the nice men she had met before in the garden upon seeing them, and she blanched when she saw who they were guiding to the criminal's side of the courtroom. Why, it was the Mad Hatter and the March Hare! She glanced at Justin, who merely watched the red headed Hatter walk to the criminal's seat with his head high, and Hare tried to follow his example, only, anyone could see the young boy shaking with fear at being in this predicament, so he tried to stay close to Hatter, if only the guards between them would let him get closer. Now Alice realized why Justin's eyes were familiar, they were the same as Hatter's, and with the same last name, this meant they had to somehow be, related. Alice was amazed that Justin was not doing more to help his relation out of this predicament, surely he knew that Hatter was too nice a person to do something as horrible as the crimes charged against him; never mind that Alice barely knew Hatter and Hare, she knew them well enough that they would not commit crimes.

While Alice had been thinking this, the last few preparations for the trial had been finished and the trial was to begin, so Justin rose, opened the small gate blocking the audience from the court area and sat down in a seat at the table, opposite from the table where Hatter sat. Now Alice was confused, as she was quite certain that where Justin was seated, was where the side going against Hatter was supposed to be, and Justin was very soon joined by a very beautiful woman with wings sprouting from her back, who sat next to him.

The woman who had yet to stop her typing announced, "Now the trial of 'Hatter and Hare vs. the Queendom of Wonderland' will commence." and finally she stopped typing waiting for something else to be said so she could type it down.

The woman who had been seated with Justin rose from her seat and the clack of typing began, "Your Majesty, I am Jillian Vanchre, representative of Sir Justin Time." and she curtsied to the Queen.

"Yes, the Caterpillar's older sister, much better than he is though, now aren't you?" the Queen replied, a smile on her still much more beautiful face.

"Yes, Your Majesty." just what she was saying 'yes' to was uncertain, but she continued, she turned to the jury and began, "Now then, the first of Mark Time's many crimes began on a night nearly ten years ago, on the night our beloved, currently missing and presumed dead by some, princess's fourth birthday party, where she did not even get to blow out the candles on her cake, but I will get to that later. As many of you know, and some do not know, Sirs Justin and Mark, arrived to the party together, at the time Mark was a twelve year old boy and Sir Justin was in the sole guardian of his little brother since their parents' recent death. The death of their parents had many, suspicious, traits to it, as many know, the police have still not identified the murderer of the Lord and Lady Time, and their only suspect was the criminal we have here." Jillian finally took a pause in her speech, and then turned to the Queen, "I should like to call Sir Justin Time to the stand."

"Sir Time, to the stand." the Queen replied, and so Justin rose from his seat and took the one of the witness, one of the black suited guards came up to him with a black book.

Justin placed his hand on top of the offered black book, "Do you swear to both show and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" the black suited man asked, in a rather monotone, very plain voice that Alice could not recall after hearing it for the life of her.

"I do so swear." Justin replied, and so the black suited guard returned to his post next to Hare.

Jillian turned to Justin, her wings slowly opening and closing slightly, in the same lazy way that a cat might swish its tail while sunbathing, "Now, Sir Time, if you might tell your account of the ordeal to the jury."

"Well, it began like this," Justin started, and the walls about them glowed, surprising Alice very much, although no one else was, before the murals suddenly disappeared and were replaced with an outside image of the castle appeared with people surrounding it and entering through the huge doors, which were taller than two of Alice's houses stacked on top of each other. The image suddenly turned, like someone shifting their head to look at someone else, and a younger version of Hatter was in the view, his mouth moved and he seemed a bit upset, but no sound escaped his mouth, the image then changed quickly to another scene where Hatter was again staring angrily and even appeared to be shouting at Justin, who's point of view Alice now assumed the video was in, the scene once again changed to Justin looking out over a balcony at the maze garden, then he suddenly turned around, showing himself to be alone, save for the bystanders from the party quite some ways off. The image turned back to the maze garden, but occasionally glanced of his shoulder, after some time he went inside and was walking through a hallway alone when he was encountered by Hatter, who was this time, speaking civilly with him, and then got closer to hug him for one reason or another, once he backed away, one could easily see the blood stained knife in Hatter's grasp, and a hand to his own side; he frowned at Justin, said something to him and then ran down the hallway. Justin instead bent his head down, and while his vision was blackening, pulled out a black pocket watch from his breast pocket, he smashed it on the floor before his image turned completely black, and after that the images revealed by Justin disappeared from the walls and the murals appeared again.

"Thank you, Sir Time." Jillian said, "And there we have obvious proof of Sir Mark Time's attempted murder of his elder brother, who, if not for his quick thinking of stopping his own time by smashing his Pocket Watch, would not be alive today, his _dear_ little brother might have gotten away with this most _heinous_ act." she told the jury, who all nodded their heads.

Alice suddenly stood up, "Objection!" she screamed, making everyone turn to stare at her, wondering why such a young girl would ever shout such a thing in the Queen's court.

The Queen of Hearts frowned deeply at Alice, "On what grounds, little girl?"

Alice hesitated for barely a moment before replying, "On the grounds of missing evidence and poor representation for the accused." this rose a reaction of surprise from the audience, who were hoping to see what sort of evidence could have been hidden with such a display, "Perhaps none of you may be able to read lips, but I happen to excel at this skill, and I know exactly what Hatter was saying during this event that clears him of this so called 'attempted murder', but if I might see Hatter's side of the event, then I would be able to give out the whole story."

The Queen stared at Alice a good long time before mouthing something at her with a glare in her eye.

"Well, I am sorry, but I quite like my head on my shoulders, Your Majesty."

The Queen's glare and frown got worse, then she whispered something the King who was seated next to her, and he mouthed something at Alice.

Alice smiled and curtsied, "Thank you, Your Majesties." and so she entered through the gate and motioned the guards a bit back from Hatter and Hare, who hesitantly moved away, and then took a seat next to Hare, while the audience stared on in awe that Alice could successfully argue with the Queen and didn't get her head chopped off for doing so.

Hare looked at Alice with obvious shock on his face, and while the typist had halted the trial to type down what she had missed, from her utter shock at how someone had dared t argue with the Queen, he whispered in question, "How did you do that?"

"Oh well, I've had lots of practice reading lips." Alice answered simply, which was the truth, she had learned how by watching the help whisper about her back at home, which was also why they now covered their mouths when they whispered about her.

"No, you argued with the Queen of Hearts, no one does that unless they want their head chopped off."

Their conversation was cut short as the trial could once again continue since the typist had caught up on her typing and could now keep up with the pace of the trial and recording it again.

"Well then, Vanchre, you have showed us your evidence against Hatter, now it is time for um, what did you say your name was again?" the King asked, he had taken over, since the Queen was silently fuming at the moment.

"Alice." was all Alice said, even though there was an expectant silence after she answered, and so the King merely nodded.

"Well then, Alice, you may present your evidence for Hatter." he replied.

"Um, Sir Time, please remain in your seat for now, I may have to refer to your evidence frequently." she told Justin, who had been about to rise out of his seat, but then remained where he was, "Um, jury, I am very far from where I once was, I am not from Wonderland, and I have been lost here for quite some days, but when I first came here, Hatter and Hare were some of the fist people I met, and so far, they have perhaps been some of the nicest, and although they gave me a map that turned out to be fake, they gave me a goal to reach, this castle, so that I might hope to find a way back to my home. They gave me tea, it was the very first time I had ever drunken such a thing, and I can honestly say, that earl grey is now my all time favorite, and when I left them, they gave me a whole thermos and food so I wouldn't get hungry, which I lost," she told them, and then turned to Hatter and Hare, "I am terribly sorry about that." then she turned back to the jury, "That is besides the point though, what I mean is, as far as I care, they are too nice to ever do something truly evil." then she turned to Justin, "Um, Sir Time, if you might show us the part of your memory, right in the very beginning where you are fighting with Hatter?"

The walls about them changed to the scene that Alice had asked for and Justin look at the scene with the others, "Here, Hatter is arguing with Sir Time, about that he had not wanted to come to this party and instead had wanted to stay home and read a book of his, is this not true, Hatter, Sir Time?" both of the men nodded their heads, "Now, please go to the next scene you showed before." the scene immediately changed to another one of the brothers fighting, in a different setting, though still at the party, "In this scene Hatter is yelling at Sir Time for tripping him so that he landed in a punch bowl, embarrassing him in front of everyone at the party." a few people chuckled at this, perhaps they had been there and recalled the incident.

"You fell in a punch bowl once?" Hare asked quietly, not quite believing this.

"Shut up." was Hatter's reply as he bowed his red head, which helped to hide his very red ears.

"Now, if you might please show the final scene that you presented to us." Justin stared at her with something like a glare in his eyes, but the scene changed anyway, Alice was watching the scene this time, "Here Hatter was apologizing, for thinking his brother might have killed their parents, and that he felt stupid for thinking so, then he and his hugged Justin, but before any conclusions are made, I should like to see Hatter's side of these memories, for what Justin says is just as important as what Hatter has said." Alice finished, "Sir Time, if you might step down, and Hatter, please take the stand."

Justin stepped down from the stand, if anyone were paying him close attention; they would notice his composure was just a little less sure than before.

The guards were still, until the Queen nodded her head, and they too led Hatter to the stand, where they made him swear on the black book to both show and tell the truth to the people present. Alice then approached him, gave him a small smile, and then said, "If you would please show us the night as you recall it, Hatter."

"With pleasure, my dear." Hatter replied with a smile of his own before the walls changed to show Justin looking at him with a bored look on his face and then he told Hatter something.

"Here Justin is merely telling Hatter to stop being a baby and have fun at the party." Alice told the audience, and then the scene changed to one of Justin smiling smugly at Hatter before his mouth moved in the motion of words escaping his mouth, "Justin is telling Hatter that he has no clue why he is being accused of tripping him into that bowl of punch as well." the scene changed one final time to the one in the hallway, here Justin merely stared at Hatter while he apologized, then Hatter went forward to hug his brother, and suddenly the image went down, to where a knife was sticking out of Hatter, the image went back up to where Justin was smiling at his brother, suddenly Justin fell to the floor and Hatter looked at some small, broken capsule in his hand, before tossing it to the ground, and removing the knife from where it had been sticking out of him. Then Hatter turned to get away from his brother and then he looked down at his pocket, finding something missing, and he turned back to see his brother smash his Pocket Watch on the ground; Hatter doubled over in pain, but kept running from his brother, not sure of what else to do, and then the present Hatter decided that was enough and the image returned to the original mural.

The audience was quietly murmuring amongst themselves, and Jillian stared at Alice and Hatter with distrustful eyes, the Queen and King were conversing over something concerning the trial before they turned back to where it was taking place, "The questioning of the witnesses may now begin." the Queen announced, "Vanchre, you have the floor first, beauty before age, _Alice_." she said with contempt in her voice on the last word.

Jillian approached Hatter and said, "Now Mark-"

"Hatter." he corrected, making Jillian glare at him.

"What?" she asked, with a snarl playing along her lips.

"Mark Time doesn't exist anymore, just the Mad Hatter now; you know, I make hats, unfortunately, there's not one hat, that anyone can _dare_ to make, pretty enough to hide your ugly." he told her with a smile, and it looked like it took every fiber in Jillian's body to _not_ attack him for that, even Alice would never have dared to make such a remark to any girl, if Sister was enough of an example, then there was good reason that most men never did so.

"What was that capsule that you had in the final scene?" Jillian asked.

"_Sleep-EZ _medication." Hatter replied.

"That was a bit big of a capsule, don't you think, that much might possibly kill a person, and better yet, what were you doing with such an amount?"

"Actually, that was only enough to knock out a person for twice the regular amount of time, not nearly close to even harming, and my parents were just killed in my own home, I should hope that I would take precautions to keep myself safe in case if the murderer came after me." Hatter replied, and then glared at Justin, "And even though no one else believed me, I knew it was Justin, he killed our parents because they were going to have me inherit the Time Line instead of him, and he could not stand that, could you? That you were shown up by little old Mark, who was always behind in the lessons, but somehow was always stronger; that's why, even though you stopped my time at three o'clock, I can still age, I can't recognize morning or night, I don't know when it's spring or winter, but my body does and it can react accordingly."

"What do you mean; Justin stopped his own time when he smashed that Pocket Watch." Jillian told Hatter, still trying to save her case.

"Really, how about it big brother, show them the watch, let them see that it has my name, so carved in that there is no way of ever removing it, even if you tried to melt it off." Hatter told his brother, who had somehow regained his composure and still had it even under these circumstances.

The Queen nodded at the guards and they approached Justin, holding him in place as he frowned at his brother and removing the black Pocket Watch from his breast pocket, they then opened it, finding that Hatter was absolutely correct, the Pocket Watch had his name inscribed in it, "Off with his head." the Queen replied calmly, and off they went with Justin, who glumly faced his fate, and Hatter watched him be escorted off, with sad eyes even for the brother that almost killed him in more ways than one; "Don't think this trial is over yet Hatter, you still have another four crimes to get through while we're here." she told him, "Now, we shall cover your possible kidnapping and/or murder of my dear daughter on this same night."

"Of course, Your Majesty." Hatter replied, and then the walls showed Hatter stumbling along until he got to a room where a little blond girl was merely seated on her bed and stared with brown eyes as Hatter stumbled onto the floor before her. Her only reaction was to reach for a nearby toy white rabbit, but her hand suddenly stopped as she saw Hatter was only lying there, her eyes asked him her question. She then glanced up at someone outside of Hatter's view, then through the depth of the crystal, her voice was heard as her mouth moved, and "We're helping him." were her only words as Hatter's vision apparently blacked out at this point. "After that, I woke up, alone, in the forest at the abandoned house your guards finally found us in, I've been there ever since." Hatter explained once the walls returned to their murals.

"Well, that clears you of possible kidnapping and/or murder, as well as of treason, but there is no denying your improper conduct with a minor, we will continue this trial after a short recess." the Queen finished, and as Hatter and Hare were led away by guards, Alice followed after them. The guards allowed her to follow, she was their lawyer after all, besides her age; she was led down a long, dreary looking hallway to a cell where Hatter and Hare were placed in it together, and Alice was allowed to stand outside it.

"Um, so what evidence do we have for your final part of the trial, Hatter?" Alice asked.

"Very incriminating evidence." Hatter replied, "Because I admit that I am completely guilty."

"You shouldn't admit to being guilty about something like that!" Hare shouted, his face turning a bit red, and he mumbled something else softly beneath his breath.

Hatter suddenly hugged Hare and smiled, "Ah, but having only one bed where two men live, one of them being much younger than the other, is more incriminating than our memories combined." Hatter replied.

Alice was very confused during this whole conversation, as she still wasn't very sure as to what an 'improper relationship with a minor' even meant, but she wanted to look smart and hadn't said anything earlier, but now she really needed to know. "What is this charge against you supposed to mean?" Alice asked Hatter, who at first was staring at her civilly, but then suddenly was glaring and Hare looked quite nervous himself now, making Alice extremely confused.

"It means that they think Hatter and Hare are having sexual relations." a new, but always familiar, voice answered bluntly to Alice's question.

She quickly turned around to see the one and only Cheshire Cat, and suddenly hugged him.


	12. An Escape from the Trial

A/N: Yeah, you got another update after only three days, yeah, I _am _that awesome, and that lazy with not doing my homework, I've been bsing everything for the past week :D little kiddies, do not follow my example, school is very important and you should always take it seriously MDR, Mourir De Rire, basically the French equivilent of the American LOL, yeah I was talking to a French exchange student today for like two hours today. Anyways, who's going to see Avatar tomorrow? I definitely am, woot, I've been wanting to see this since the first trailer started playing on tv.

EDIT: Sorry, I just realized, I didn't give any thanks to the people who reviewed/favorited/alerted, well, since it's only been three days, only one person has reviewed, and that is the ever faithful Jhinra, let's give her a round of applause(*super loud audience applause*) and guess what else, you get, a brand new virtual, _CAR.  
WARNING: ,it'savirtualcarit',._

Anyway, enough of me in real life, this is where you get to know some more about Hare, and OMUP(Oh My Ultimate Power), I cannot wait until chapter fourteen, because I just finished writing it and it is so intense, oh my gah, we learn something _SUPER_ important about Cat there, and it's actually kinda sad what we learn, but it's so awesome in my opinion and it's just gah!(throttles imaginary stuffed toy) Ignore me and my spazattack, just read.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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"Cat!" Alice shouted, not quite knowing why she had decided to hug Cat or was so happy to see him, but she just knew she couldn't be any happier than she was now.

"Yes, it's _wonderful_ to see you as well." Cat replied sarcastically while peeling her off of him, "But we need to get going." and he approached the cell door, kneeled a bit to examine the intricate lock for a moment before he stood back up, "Get out of the way." he told Hatter and Hare, who quickly moved to the side as Cat then kicked in the cell door, making it crash through the wall, where a very large hole now appeared, quite more than large enough for all of them to exit through, and a tree was conveniently located right outside it. "We have to get going, Aaron is coming for Alice, and if he sees the chance, then he will kill you two as well." Cat told them all, as he tried to get them out the hole as quickly as possible.

"It's a bit late for that, Cheshire Cat." a new voice interjected, that made fear rise in Alice's spine, she turned to see Aaron Earsten less than ten feet from where they already were, merely staring them down, "Now then, I could care less about you or the fugitives, but just hand over the Princess Alice and everything will be fine."

"Then she _is_ the Princess?" Hatter asked, looking at Alice in a new light, and this notion rather confused Alice, sure she had come to the castle in the first place with intentions of finding if she was indeed the Queen's child or not, but it was still very confusing to hear this nonetheless.

"Of course, I wouldn't bring someone from a completely different world unless she was, and obviously, you already knew who she was, didn't you Cheshire Cat?" Aaron asked having now pulled out some gun like weapon made of the same material as the walls in the courtroom.

"Of course." Cat replied, "I wouldn't have been a very good guard if I couldn't recognize my charge after only ten years." and he flicked his wrists quickly and from somewhere in his sleeves emerged strange little circles with daggers all along the edges, along with a pressed down top hat, he tossed it to Hatter, "There you go, now if you might help by leading these two out." and with that he pushed Alice along towards Hatter and Hare, before suddenly flicking one of his chained circles in front of them, deflecting the bullet that had been aimed at Hare, "Are you really willing to kill your own cousin just to get the Princess?" Cat asked Aaron.

Aaron scoffed, "That sort of pathetic thing, can't possibly be related to someone as great as me; now give me the girl, or else I might be late for a very important date."

"You mean so you can hand her over to the Queen so she'll be killed?" Cat asked, deflecting another of Aaron's bullets, "Just like was planned that night so long ago?"

"Oh come now, you knew the plan too, if Justin Time had actually killed his brother like planned, then we wouldn't be having this problem, Mark would be dead, we'd have killed Alice, and the Queen would remain all powerful while the both of us had high positions in court." Aaron told him, and then turned to glare at Alice, "But instead, Mark had to stumble into the room, and you wanted to help him, so annoying you were, _ordering_ us to help him." Aaron then turned his scowl back to Cat, who was still on the guard despite the fact that Aaron had his gun down, "And you, we could have gotten the job done and over with while we were there, but instead, you suddenly developed a conscience, in all the years that I had worked with you, you decided _then_ to get one, whatever happened to the Cheshire Cat I knew, the one who could take down nine in one strike by the time he was six, what happened to him, what too good for mercenary work now?" he shot five or six shots at Cat, who was able to either dodge or deflect them all.

"Nope, just decided I didn't want to be like you." Cat replied, flicking one of his chained circles at Aaron, who easily dodged it.

"Hah, think you can beat me, really Cheshire Cat, I was the one who _taught _you how to use that, there isn't anything you know that I don't already." suddenly a sickle like weapon went straight at Aaron's head, if it wasn't for his quick reflexes, he would have gotten much more than a cut on his cheek.

"You might have taught him, but I bet you didn't even know I could fight." Hatter told Aaron, as the sickle like weapon came back into his top hat by a chain that connected the two.

"Hmph, I admit I did not know that, but I think I'll more than manage against you." and he shot the gun again, this time at Hare and Alice, both the sickle and Cat's dagger circles blocked the attacks, but Cat was wide open when another bullet came at him, he barely had enough time to move enough to protect his vital organs from being hit, but now he had one useless arm. "Well then, looks like your chances were just cut in half." Aaron told them, "But, if you hand over Alice, then I'll make sure to kill you quickly, it might be painful, but it's better than what the Queen would make you go through, well, what's your choice?"

Cat was glaring daggers at Aaron, when the white haired man suddenly fell forward, his face landing right on the ground with an ugly thump, behind Aaron stood, of all people, the King, with a gun not at all unlike Aaron's, although there was no wound anywhere on Aaron's back. The King looked down at Aaron for a while before turning back up to them and saying, "I've wanted to do that for longer than you could ever possibly imagine."

"Your Majesty, um, thank you." Cat replied, still on the guard, since he still wasn't sure of the King's plans.

"Well then, I suggest you take my daughter and get going, I'll cover up here." he replied, and then pulled Aaron up a bit and made him lean against the wall in a slouched position, after that he approached Cat, "Now, your weapon please, I need to make it look like I was helping him and not you lot." Cat nodded and instead stabbed the King in the shoulder for him, he grimaced in pain and he dropped the gun he had been holding, but said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Cat replied as he removed the weapon from the King's shoulder, the wound began to bleed heavily, and suddenly Alice stepped forward.

"Then, then I _am_ your daughter?" Alice asked.

The King smiled sadly, "Yes, Alice Mary Elizabeth Heart, I knew it the moment I saw you, be thankful your mother cannot realize such things so easily." he patted the top of her head with his other hand and kissed her forehead. "Now go with them, be safe, because the day will come, when your mother falls from her throne, and you will have to become the new Queen of Hearts." he hugged her with one arm and Alice hugged him back fiercely, crying at the thought of having to leave this father, that she had just barely met, already, then he pushed her towards Cat, "If I find out that any harm has come to her, damn the consequences, I _will_ kill you." he told Cat with a stern face.

"I do not doubt that." was Cat's reply, before pulling Alice on top of his good shoulder and then jumping out of the hole in the wall, Hatter and Hare followed after them, and once all four were down, Alice felt that familiar pulling and pushing sensation that she had only once before felt.

The group appeared at the clearing that Cat had taken her to before when escaping from the Jabberwocky, it was still full of green grass, the waterfall still fell upside down, and the same pretty flowers, were now singing a different song that Alice could not understand the words of.

"Well, now what?" Hatter asked Cat, who had approached the water and was now cleaning his wound.

Cat was still for a while, his tail swishing slowly before he answered, "I'm not very sure."

Hatter blinked at Cat, once, twice, three times before sighing and dropping his head into his hand, "You broke two fugitives out of their trial, you've re-kidnapped the Princess, we've attacked the Queen's esquire, you attacked the King, and now you've agreed to help him in his plan to overthrow the Queen and put Alice, who has no training to be a queen by the way, on the throne once her mother falls, and we have absolutely no plan; brilliant, abso-_fucking_-lutely _brilliant_, I suppose we should hide in a cave in the Volcanic Plains, now shouldn't we?"

"Hm, they _would_ never think to look in the Volcanic Plains." Cat mused aloud in a voice that said he was seriously considering the idea; as he now wrapped his wound in gauze that he had in a small first aid kit that he carried with him.

"You do know I was joking, right?"

"Yes, but it was a good idea nonetheless."

Cat and Hatter continued to argue in this way, Hatter getting more and more fired up while Cat merely remained calm, and during this Hare and Alice were instead seated off to the side, watching the argument like a tennis match, even the flowers had stopped their singing to watch the fight. Alice yawned and Hare did as well, so they leaned on each other and fell asleep like that, somehow able to do so even with Hatter yelling loudly at Cat.

"You should be quiet, you'll wake them up." Cat told him, gesturing at Hare and Alice.

"Hare could sleep through a tornado, and he actually _has_, and if Alice hasn't woken up by now, then she's as heavy a sleeper as he is." Hatter replied, looking at Hare with soft eyes, he then sighed, "We need to at least find somewhere safe for them to sleep."

"Why do you think I brought us here, this place isn't even supposed to exist." Cat replied, "I mean we might be in Wonderland, but have you _ever_ even heard of a _green_ waterfall?"

"True, but where is this then?" Hatter asked, looking about himself suspiciously.

"This is one of the Princess's private play rooms, no one else but the King knows about them, and only people she trusts are allowed in them in the first place." Cat explained, "I'm still not very sure how it works, but that's as far as I've figured out."

"So what, we're going to live here for the rest of our lives or until the Queen finally dies?" Hatter asked.

"Of course not, once the search for us has cooled a little, then we're going to move." Cat replied, "We'll go to a small village I know of, it's about two weeks' travel from the castle, but much sooner if we can time our leaving right."

"What?"

"Well, this place isn't always in the same place, only the flowers know where we are all the time, and we have to wait until the flowers sing the right song before we can move." Cat explained further, "That's how Alice left this world."

"You mean, while you weren't paying attention, she left and somehow entered a completely different world?"

"Yes, and this place never stops in the same location twice, that's why we have to be very careful and always listen to the flowers, or we might miss our stop."

Hatter sighed, "Alright, but then, what do we do about food?" Cat then brought out a spare, long dagger, struck the water with it and brought out four fish stabbed on it, "Ok then, I guess I'll get started on a fire."

They then began to make the fire once Hatter had gotten enough sticks from the surrounding area and began cooking the fish once it had started, Hare and Alice woke up shortly before the fish had finished cooking.

They were all silent as they ate, before Hatter decided to break it, "Since when were you related to the White Rabbit?" he asked Hare.

Hare looked up, as though trying to recall before answering, "I should think, since I was born." this earned him a glare from Hatter, "Ok, well, I used to work with Aaron, after my parents died, but I was just a medic, I didn't actually fight, and I left him about a year or two before I met you." Cat nodded his head in agreement to Hare's story; although Cat had had no contact with Aaron or Hare before getting Hare and Hatter out of jail, for whatever reason, Hatter believed Cat when he nodded his head.

"Ok, I just feel sorry for you, having to be related to an ass like that." Hatter replied.

Hare stared at him, calmly eating his fish, before asking, "Are you sure you're ok?"

Hatter seemed to know exactly what Hare meant by that, because he replied, "My brother killed our parents, almost killed me, and stopped my sense of time, but he was still my brother." he was quiet a while longer before setting his fish to the side and walking off to lay against a tree and sleep, Hare then set his own food aside and sat next to Hatter, before again falling asleep on him.

Cat sighed and continued eating with Alice, who was finally feeling hungry for possibly the first time in her life, "And what about you?" Cat suddenly asked, making Alice jerk her head up to stare at him, "Are you, feeling ok?" he asked awkwardly.

"Well, I suppose I am." Alice replied, not quite sure what she _should_ be feeling in the first place, in all of one day she had just helped catch a murderer, clear someone of kidnapping charges, saw a weapons fight, was almost killed, met her real father, who had apparently knocked out the person that planned to lead her to her death, found out her real mother wanted her dead, discovered she was really a princess from a completely different world, helped in the escape of two fugitives, was currently hiding from the law, and was _extremely _hungry at that point.

"Alright then." Cat replied, before suddenly standing up and climbing up a tree to either keep watch or fall asleep in the branches, Alice wasn't sure but for some reason felt it might have been the first excuse.

Alice too decided to try and sleep again as well, she hadn't been doing much of that as of late and really needed some more of it, so she settled next to the flowers, who started singing some lullaby, that although she had never heard it before, it felt extremely familiar to her ears and she fell sound asleep to the sound of it.

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A/N: Yeah, I bet you people weren't expecting that from the King, now were you? If you were, please try to refrain from telling me and let me delude myself into thinking I'm a good writer. You know, I really love writing any arguments that Hatter and Cat have, they bicker so much and I love the way they do it, it's fun to write. Oh, also, some of you might still be confused about Hatter and Hare's relationship, so let me put it like this, they _are_ in a relationship, so that does make Hatter a pedophile,since in Wonderland you're a minor until you're eighteen, although he's not a pediphile in the sense that he and Hare had any sexual relations, but you see, in Wonderland, you are convited for that crime so long as you have a relationship of any romantic sort with a minor. Thank gosh that since this Wonderland is a product of my imagination, I can make the laws and court work however I want, or else I would have had a load of trouble with that last chapter.

Anywa, glad you read this :D RER, Read, Enjoy, Review, see the review button is right there, just suggesting though, pushing you to click it or anything .


	13. The City of Whitewater

A/N: I feel a bit stupid, I was copying the chapter from my google notebook onto a Microsoft Office document, and when I saved it, it told me I already had a document under the same name, so I just shrugged my shoulders and saved over it anyway, then I went to upload it here, and it told me I already had a document with the same name saved on here, so yeah, I feel pretty stupid about that. In other news, I am also stupid because I have three days of vacation left before I have to go back to school, and I haven't done _any_ of my homework, then again, neither has my sister and she's the one taking all advanced classes. Anyways onto the business of people that have reviewed! Of course, the people that reviewed were as follows: James Birdsong and Jhinra, hugs and kisses to the people for reviewing/alerting/favoriting!

Also, special thanks to Jhinra, as she is mentioning good reads here on fanfiction in her own story, and this story is one of the ones she is suggesting, and so I'm going to give her some advertisement, here is the link to her story ---- fanfiction . net / s / 5355226 / 1 / Wonderland _ Merry _ Go _ Round (remove spaces) I personally think it is also a good read. :)

Happy New Year's! Be careful if you're outside after midnight, people like to shoot guns to celebrate and a stray bullet could hit you, or maybe that's just down here, anyway, be safe, don't drink and drive, and I hope 2010 is good to you, especially if you're a high school senior!

RER! Read! Enjoy! Review!

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The group stayed in the secret clearing for another two weeks or so, always making sure that if they had to go outside, they had Cat with them, since he was the only one who could take them back to the clearing. The day that the flowers began to sing the song that made Cat jump straight out of his tree was the day they all left the safe clearing, covered in cloaks that they had, "borrowed", for Alice's sake they claimed to have borrowed them; the four left the clearing and walked in the woods for close to an hour, in the same direction, Alice noticed, that the flowers had told her to go when she left that same clearing to find the Queen's castle, so long ago that now felt to her. Yet, when the group reached the same spot at which Alice had entered the garden maze, they instead exited the forest and were on a road that was made of some strange copper colored substance, and the trees around them all had off-white trunks and lavender colored leaves, never mind the fact that the forest they had just exited out of had instead had consisted of trees with blue green trunks and very light blue leaves. Cat took a step onto the road and Alice quickly followed him, sticking to his side like she had been stitched on there, and so Hatter and Hare followed after them; Hatter keeping Hare close to him and keeping a careful vigil on their surroundings from underneath his top hat.

"Where are we going?" Alice asked in a quiet whisper.

"Whitewater." Cat replied, "It's practically in the next kingdom, we should be safe there."

"Whitewater?" Hatter asked, "Oh yes, we'll be safe there, especially when the war finally breaks out, that's right next to the kingdom of Gabbory, and you know that the queendom of Wonderland has been at odds with the kingdom of Gabbory since before recorded history."

"Exactly, Whitewater isn't even really considered Wonderland territory, and if we're ever in danger from them, we'll tell the King who Alice is, and then we can form our own truce with him, we'll support him and if he wins, then Alice will be placed on the throne by the King and Gabbory will have free use of our routes through the Volcanic Plains." Cat explained.

It was quite a while before he replied, "That's, actually not a bad idea."

"See, we ex-mercenaries have to know our politics." Cat told him, Alice wasn't paying much attention to their talk of politics, nor was Hare, they instead were taking in the sights about them; Alice because she had never before been able to travel so much. Hare because, although he had traveled extensively while in the company of his cousin, he would often opt to not go outside of their safe house where ever they were and just waited until the boy mercenary got back to treat what few wounds he might have received.

Alice suddenly rushed away from Cat's side, making all three of the boys rush to follow her, and she only stopped at the side of the road to pick something up; it was some small, rodent like creature, with large purple eyes, blue fur sprinkled with yellow stars, and a pair of light blue wings on its back. The creature, instead of fearing Alice, seemed quite comfortable with her and even settled itself in her hood, taking a comfy, warm spot next to her neck; Alice was quite pleased with this and then continued walking down the road, making the boys feel a bit stupid for reacting at absolutely nothing.

The boys all suddenly rushed again at Alice, and she was very surprised to find them looking at her, or she thought it was her, really it was the creature they were staring at and not Alice

"That can't possibly be, can it?" Hatter asked.

"No, it-it's supposed to be a fairy tale, isn't it?" Hare asked as well, staring with his mouth open.

"But, it _is_." Cat answered, to the other boys.

"What are you talking about?" Alice finally asked, as she backed up a step, to get some room from the boys who were crowding her before.

"That creature is a jubileedee." Cat answered to Alice, reaching to grab it, but instead the creature burrowed further into Alice's hood.

Alice scrunched her eyebrows together, "What is a jubileedee?" she asked, wondering why it was supposed to be a fairy tale and its existence greatly shocked all of her friends.

"A jubileedee is, well _was_, a fairy tale about how Wonderland was found. The very first Queen of Hearts and her future subjects were slaves in some kingdom across the Volcanic Plains, on the second night of their travel through the Plains, their numbers were already cut in half; and that was when the Queen, who had gone off to try and find food and water, returned to her people with that creature and claimed it knew how to safely lead them out of the Volcanic Plains; those that followed her, reached the very plot of land where the current castle is, in only two more nights." Hare explained, having remembered hearing the story dozens upon dozens of times as a child.

"Well, then what does it mean, that he's here with me?" Alice asked, as the jubileedee rubbed its furry head against her face.

"I'm not very sure, but it must be a sign of good fortune, especially since we're not two days from Whitewater." Cat replied.

"What, then how far are we?" Hatter asked, knowing that if they were too far away, then they might still be in danger of being caught by the Queen of Hearts.

"At best, if we don't stop to rest, about, less than an hour." Cat answered, "Well then, Alice, you need to know this one very important thing, you're not Alice anymore."

"What?" she asked, very confused as she didn't really want to be anyone else, especially since she was just barely finding out who she was in the first place.

"After you were 'kidnapped'," here Cat put air quotations around the word, as she had not really been kidnapped in the first place, merely taken to safety and then wandered off on her own into a different world altogether, "The Queen passed a law that said no children thereafter were allowed to be named Alice, and all children who had then been named Alice, had to immediately receive new names, so as to help narrow the field in finding you, if certain people find out, you're Alice, then we might have some bad fortune, even with the jubileedee, so you are now Alyssa, got it, Alyssa?"

Alice slowly nodded her head in understanding, still not liking the idea of no longer being Alice, but not wanting to get caught by the Queen any more than her companions did.

"Alright then, let's keep going, we need to get there soon if we're going to meet up with an old friend of mine." Hatter raised an eyebrow, an eyebrow that clearly stated that he really did not want their younger companions to be meeting with more mercenaries, but Cat replied, "He knows Whitewater better than anyone else, and he can get us a place to stay at easily."

This left the group to travel in silence for the better part of an hour, and when they arrived at the gates to Whitewater, Alice secured the hood on her head more safely, to hide her fearful face and the jubileedee who still hid behind her neck, and she held tightly onto Cat's arm; the city's high walls and strong gate frightening her in all truth, she had never seen so many imposing buildings as she had since her arrival into Wonderland. There were guards outside the gates, but Cat had apparently been prepared for this, as he pulled from his cloak, papers for all of them, handing them to each of his companions. Alice found out that the papers stated Alice, or Alyssa Hatter was the little sister of Gregory Hatter, Hare, or Klaude Xavier was Gregory's apprentice, in hat making, and Cat was merely a bodyguard for the group that Gregory had hired. The guards checked over the papers and after finding them to be in order, nodded their heads and allowed the group to pass through.

Alice was smacked in the face with the loudness of the city, she had never even before left her house's yard, so her surprise at the state of a city was expected, and even though the noise and crowd was a bit disagreeable to her, she was still in awe, especially since she could already tell that a Wonderland city was, in many aspects, completely different from a city where she was from. There were many people like Cat and Hare she found, some dressed very nicely, in silks and velvets, and others in rags and cloths; the stores they also varied, she saw normal ones, grocery, toy, dress, clothing, tailor, and antiques, but then she saw the more unusual, stores that advertised swordsmanship lessons, stores specifically targeted at people like Cat and Hare, stores especially for ones like Alice and Hatter, and others for people that fell in neither category. It all amazed Alice, especially when they passed through an area where performers were breathing fire and swallowing swords, but Cat dragged her away and led their group to where ever his friend could be found.

The group found themselves heading to a high class residential area, where Cat stopped at one of the larger houses, outside of the gate, where the guards did not allow them access, until Cat spoke quietly with them and handed them each something from his cloak, Alice wondered what this exchange was, but did not question it as it did get them past the gate rather very quickly. They reached the door to the house after walking quite a while, Alice had gotten really too tired of walking as of late and sincerely hoped she might be allowed to stop at some point; the door to the house was opened by an imposing looking butler, who rose an eyebrow at the group.

"Whatever charity you are from, the master of this household will not support it." the butler told them, and was about to close the door, but Cat stopped it with his hand.

"Now, now, I know the master of this household quite well, intimately even, so you can tell him, that if he does not allow me into this house, that there will not be a soul in Wonderland who will not know of his, 'night time accidents' that persisted well into his teen years, understood?" Cat replied, again the butler rose an eyebrow, but decided to allow the group into the mud room, and while he left to inform the master of the household, the group was tended to by a small gathering of maids who removed their cloaks and stored them away before awaiting further instruction.

The butler returned after another ten minutes or so, and frowned at them, before gesturing the group to follow after him; they were led to grand looking waiting room, with luxurious couches, rich wooden coffee tables, with tea and snacks set upon them for those waiting to speak with the master of the household, there was a great chandelier above that was made of that same strange, green crystal that Alice had grown quite accustomed to while in the Courtroom of the Queen's castle.

Cat, Hatter, and Hare all sat uncomfortably amidst the spectacular room, seeming quite out of place in their bedraggled clothes and improper manners for such a high class room, whereas Alice, seemed to know perfectly well how to behave in such a room. Although she had supposed she would never need the etiquette training Mother had forced upon her, she was still quite happy to have it now that she finally had the chance to use it.

She politely asked the butler if they might have some of the tea and snacks that was set on the table before them, and although he had moved to pour the tea himself, Alice beat him to it and poured it much more gracefully than her appearance would have allowed one to suggest. She was still dressed in her now faded blue dress with the yellowed and torn apron; she somehow made it look quite elegant while pouring the four cups of tea and handing her companions little tea plates of food tea snacks that she retrieved with the snack tongs.

Finally, after another ten to twenty minutes of waiting, the door to the luxurious room opened to admit a tall man, perhaps just a few years older than Hatter, with familiar black hair and familiar dark skin, but tabby colored cat ears that accompanied a tabby colored tail that swished angrily as the man glared with livid, green, green eyes, that outrivaled even those of Hatter, directly at Cat.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing here, you son of a bastard?" the man spat with venom at Cat.

Cat merely replied with a smile, "Nice to see you too, Brother."


	14. With the Cats

A/N: Ugh, there's been signs that I should not get on the computer lately, so I've kinda been listening to them, cause a few days ago, the cable company was down and the neighborhood didn't have cable or the internet, which was also the night I had something to do for chem class online, so I got three quiz grades, all as twenties, because I didn't get to finish the assignment(admittedly I had a very long time to do it, but that is what being a procrastinator does to you), and then today the power was out in the whole neighborhood for a good few hours, for some people their power is _still_ out and they've just been at the nearby Barnes&Noble so they don't have to stay at home with no heater(it was about 25 F last night/early morning and I live in southern Texas) and very bored children.

Anyway, enough about my life, now to the thank yous for people who reviewed/favorited/alerted, since I last updated and the list this time includes: Jhinra and James Birdsong, as always, for reviewing; again, there were no other reviewers/favorites/alerts.

Ok, just so you people know, if you happen to like Cat and you already like his brother, well then, you might _hate_ me for this chapter, just fair warning; also Cat's brother likes to curse a lot, it's just how he talks, especially to Cat, sorry if it offends anyone.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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"I said, what the _fuck_ are you doing here?" the man spat again at Cat, tail swishing more angrily, if it was possible, as he stalked towards them, Alice did not realize the tense atmosphere and instead poured yet another cup of tea for the tabby like man.

"How many sugars?" she asked him, having taken the small bowl of sugar in one hand and the sugar tongs in the other.

The man looked at her for a moment before suddenly turning to the butler, who shook his head and so he turned back to Alice before replying, quite civilly, "Two, thank you." Alice placed two sugars in his tea and handed it to him; he then took a sip of it like a proper gentleman and set it down on the table once more, before turning back to Cat with that fierce glare in his eyes and _again_ asking, "What the _fuck_ are you doing here?"

"What, I can't bring some friends to meet my own dear brother?" Cat asked with a raise of the brow and relaxed swish of the tail.

"Not if you don't want to die." the man replied, "Besides, who are these people, I almost thought she was a maid for heaven's sake!" Cat merely glanced at the butler before glancing at his brother again, "What?" he turned and looked at the butler, "Oh, Butler, I would trust him with all nine of my lives if that's what you are implying."

"Right then, introductions, this is my brother, the Tabby Cat; Brother these are Hatter, Hare, and-"

"You mean they're the fugitives that the Queen has sent a messenger to warn the guards about?" Tabby asked with a raised brow, taking a seat in the armchair across from his brother and sipping at his tea; Alice briefly wondered how he knew this when the guards had not yet even been informed, but decided it was just one of the strange things about the Cats.

"Yes and not even her fastest messenger will make it in half the time we did." Cat replied, then he glanced at the butler before motioning to Alice, "And _this_, is Alice, the Princess of Hearts."

Butler immediately bowed to the young girl and Tabby merely stared at her in quiet surprise, "Well then, that is certainly a most convincing disguise then, I fully believed she was indeed a maid that simply didn't know the limits of this household, although that might have more to do with that if she looked any worse she could look like a beggar."

"Come now, she's royalty, be nice." Cat told his brother, who instead continued sipping his tea.

"Now then, what _do_ you want?" Tabby asked his brother.

Cat put a hand to his chest, feigning shock, "Why, dear Brother, you would believe me to _want_ something of you, can I not just come to visit a dear relation?"

"If it's you, never." Tabby replied.

Cat quickly dropped his act and leaned back in the couch he was seated on and smirked, "Well then, you'd be completely right, we need housing, clothing, and a hat making business, if you could not tell; I was hoping you might supply us with these things."

Tabby took a long drink of his tea, sighed deeply with eyes closed, opened them and then turned to Butler, "Give them the keys and the deed to the old apartment that we don't use, the one with the store beneath it, sign it over to a, um, Gregory Hatter, correct?" he asked his brother, who nodded, "And supply Hatter with new clothing, Hare, give him something old of mine that I never wore too often, give some old thing of one of the servant's to my brother and get the tailor to make something suitable for the girl, chop, chop, we haven't time to lose." he finished to Butler, who immediately left to do all these things.

"Seems like he's good help." Cat replied, earning him a glare from his brother, who just sighed and shook his head at something.

"You know, Mother died, and Calico had two kids." Tabby informed his brother.

"Really, good for them." Cat said with a smile, making Alice wonder just why the Cat family seemed to have such a bad relationship with one another.

Again Tabby sighed, and then called in maids to lead Alice, Hatter, and Hare to take baths before changing into their new clothes, "You and I need to talk." he told his brother, and Alice saw one final glimpse of her Cat before the doors to the grand room shut her away from him.

The maids rushed her away from the boys and into a bath far greater than any she had seen back at home with Mother and Father. They stripped her of her clothing, threw those away quickly, before she could have any say in the matter, and scrubbed down her body and hair harshly, causing Alice, actual physical _pain_, and great discomfort. They finished washing her briskly and quickly, dried her with a soft, fluffy towel that almost made her forgive them for their painful bathing routine, and then forced a dress over her head and combed her hair harshly, all in all, in about, little more than an hour, they had finished bathing and dressing her and so allowed her to see her own image in the mirror.

Alice was surprised, of course, at the castle, there had been a mirror on one of the walls, and Alice knew her appearance was certainly no pretty thing, and she supposed that having slept on forest ground for yet another week didn't really help her look any better, but she certainly never thought she could look this, well, _good_, after just a bath, or maybe it was just that the difference between her extremely dirty state and her clean one really were that great. Whatever it was, Alice quite liked it right then.

Her hair was at long last, less brown and more blond, like it had been; her skin was a shade lighter now that the dirt had been removed; the dirt under her nails was also gone, giving them a nice white look. The dress she had on also helped, a gorgeous light blue color with white ruffles at the sleeves, collar, and tactfully placed along the dress; she found that the dress had a set of pockets, one of in which she found the jubileedee sleeping contently, so she at least did not have to worry about where he had gone off to. She had even been given a choker, a black velvet ribbon with a blue gem hanging from it, the jewel was very expensive looking and she wondered why she would be given such a thing in the first place; but she merely shrugged it off and continued to admire the dress in the mirror.

Then the maids led her out of the room to another waiting room where she met up with Hatter and Hare, who were dressed in green and brown suits respectively; it was in this lesser waiting room that they awaited the arrival of their friend.

Cat's three companions left the room as he stared at his brother, only four years older than him, but he still acted as though Cat was a newborn and he was a hundred and fifty; it was really too annoying in Cat's opinion, and he liked to make that well known, "Someone really needs to take that stick out of your ass."

Tabby glared at his younger brother, but then sat down across from him and suddenly his head fell to his hands and Cat blinked in surprise. He was very sure that the brother, who had told him to stop blubbering like a walrus when he broke his arm so that the bone tore through the meat and flesh, and had actually been the one to break the arm that badly, was _crying_.

Cat could only stare, unsure of what to do, tempted to go forward and see if his brother was alright, but unsure if that was the right action, having never before been faced with anything like this situation. Tabby lifted his head, his face wet with tears, "Cheshire, she had a Tabby and a Grey." and Cat now understood why his brother was so distressed, Cat had begun life as a Grey, "You might be dying, too."

Alice, Hatter, and Hare were made to wait for quite a long time, before Cat finally exited the room with his brother, they spoke in hushed tones, not letting their conversation be heard, then the brothers hugged quickly and Tabby continued standing at the door, waved a goodbye to Alice and the rest, before reentering the waiting room and going back to his office, tail barely swishing behind him. Cat also seemed a bit down after speaking with his brother, Alice wondered why and wanted dearly to ask him, but could not bring herself to do so.

"Well then, to the townhouse." Cat told his companions, twirling a set of keys on his finger.

They then walked out of the house, to find a small carriage awaiting them, Cat helped Alice onto the compartment and then Hatter and Hare got on themselves, Cat decided to instead ride in the front with the driver, leaving the other three to themselves.

"Cat seems sad." Alice stated to the two men, who looked at her in surprise.

"He does?" Hare asked, having not noticed and Hatter also raised a brow in a questioning matter.

"Yes, I wonder why." and then she took to looking out the window at the still confusing sights of the city about them, her two companions were left to be confused over her instead of the bustling city.

The carriage stopped moving after some time and the scenery outside of Alice's window was suddenly replaced by Cat's upside down face, "We're here." was all that he told them, before jumping down from on top of the carriage and helping Alice down from the carriage, which the others exited quickly after her. Once they were all down, with the luggage that Tabby had provided them, so as not to allow them to look so suspicious, just appearing at some new home with nothing at all; the carriage turned around and left them, whether to go back to Tabby's or elsewhere they did not know, nor really cared about at the time.

The group entered the townhouse, finding a large, empty room, with well situated shelves and counters and a large display window in the front, there were a set of stairs leading to what Alice assumed was the house portion of the building. Near the counter at the back, there was a door, that when Alice opened it, she saw led outside to a large yard with nice green grass, and there was another building altogether as well. She walked to it and walked up the stairs at the side of it, when she reached the second floor, she found an open floor with a large window that looked out over the wall of the city, out towards a sea of lavender leaved trees.

"So, I guess you want this as your room."

Alice turned around quickly to find that it was Cat looking over her shoulder at the sea of trees with her, "Um, yes." she replied, quite liking the idea of the room being hers.

Cat sighed and leaned against the wall next to her, she stayed quiet, knowing he had something to say and waiting to hear it, "I'm leaving."

This was not what she had wanted to hear and she turned to face him quickly, "Why?" she asked quietly, "I mean, isn't, wouldn't it be bad, if the Queen found you?"

"There are things I have to do, since I'm a Cat, I don't have to worry about the laws here, they don't apply to me, I've literally gotten away with murder." he looked uncertain about something, and then turned away from Alice, "Well, I don't suspect we'll ever see each other again, so, goodbye." and he raised his hand in a lazy farewell.

Cat was walking towards the door before Alice snatched the back of his shirt, "Cat, wait, I mean, at least, I want to see you again, or at least hear from you, please, I don't, I don't want to lose you."

Cat was silent for a long time before he finally said, "I'll send you a letter." and then he shrugged her off before leaving Alice, the house, even the city, and going to do, with what time he had left, what he had to, leaving behind Alice with a broken heart.


	15. A Day in Whitewater

A Day in Whitewater

A/N: Ok, I so totally have not been able to write most anything for the past few days, because it was the end of the semester at my school so I had to study for my chemistry exam; my last day of high school chemistry was Wednesday, can't begin telling you how happy I as for that, although, I'm pretty sure I failed. And damn it, I got an Incomplete in my AP class, because I was stupid and left my take-home exam at home, *headmeetdesk* and the worst part is, it turned out that even though I thought there was no one who could pick it up and bring it to me at school, my mom actually could have. Oh well, at least I already finished it, I know a website where I can check the answers, and my teacher was nice enough to give me an Incomplete instead of a zero and just have me hand in the exam when we go back to school on Tuesday. Also, I am dangerously nearing the end of this story, after the chapter that I am about to begin, there's at most, three chapters, maybe, left, and that's including the epilogue, which I kind of have to make two of, now that I realize, or, wait, no, nevermind, I can keep it to one, I think, for my own sake, I hope, and then I kind of hope not.

Anyway, enough of my life, to the thanking of reviewers/subscribers/favoriters, who are as always, Jhinra and James Birdsong.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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Alice gazed out the window of her room, eight years had already passed since that fateful day when Alice crawled under her bed after that toy white rabbit and fell into Wonderland, the queendom where she was from originally.

She was a young woman of twenty two, no longer a childish fourteen year old girl, but she still lived with her friends Hatter and Hare, still as Alyssa Hatter, Gregory Hatter and Klaude Xavier, still hiding from the clutches of the Queen of Hearts, her own mother who wanted her dead, and still waiting for Cat to send her that letter he had promised her so long ago. After Cat had left, Alice would often hear rumors about how he had gone through the Volcanic Plains and to whatever was on the other side, with the fugitives and again kidnapped Princess of Hearts from all those years ago; of course, Alice knew this wasn't true, as she certainly had never again gone into the Volcanic Plains after her first accidental venture into it.

She hoped Cat was alright, especially with his condition, soon after Cat had left them, Alice had asked Hatter what Cat had meant by the laws not applying to him, and so Hatter explained that only one hundred years after the first Queen founded Wonderland, a large group of catlike people came into the queendom from across the Volcanic Plains, the rulers at that time were a ruthless sort and used the people as slaves, almost the entire population was killed, save for seven of them, a tabby colored cat, a grey colored cat, a calico, a pure white one, a black cat, a Cheshire cat, and a tom cat. These Cats were the very cats that Cat and Tabby were descended from, and as apology for killing almost all of them, the queendom allowed their kind complete immunity from all laws.

Yet, even though they had survived the cruel treatment of the queendom, when another Grey had been birthed by the Calico, a short time later, the first Grey died, and it continued in this fashion for all of them. Hatter told Alice that at the time they had come to Whitewater, the Calico had given birth to two sons, a Tabby and a Grey, so at the time they met him, Tabby was dying, which explained to Alice why only a week after arriving they heard the sad news of Tabby being found in his office, dead as a coffin nail; but this did not explain why Cat left, and so Hatter had to tell her how Cat had actually been born as a Grey, instead of a Cheshire, a confusing circumstance that still had no explanation; although it did explain why Cat had left, perhaps he didn't want to let Alice see him die, or he was going off to see if he really would die because of how he had originally been born. This had saddened Alice to no degree and she had stayed in her room for _hours_, crying her poor, little heart out and praying that her dear friend would not die, to the day she still did not know if he had or not.

-

That day Alice was as always helping her "brother" and his "apprentice" in the hat shop, just advising ladies and gentlemen as to what hat would best suit them or whoever they were buying it for, and as always, Hatter was fending off Alice's suitors with an iron rod. The girl had grown to be a pretty thing, her hair had finally decided that it no longer wanted to be stringy and instead curled about her shoulders, her brown eyes, instead of darkening, had lightened with the years, and exposure to the sun had also lightened her dirty blond hair to a less dirty blond color; this also meant that her skin had grown tanner, which was not at all common for a girl of her class, and the men of her class found that attractive, as it would blow their mothers' minds if they brought her home and their fathers would clap them on the back in private and tell them they had done a good job. Alice had also, at long last, developed a high opinion of politics, the environment, economy, and numerous other things that most young ladies such as herself really had no business thinking about.

Alice was smiling at a woman who was wearing a hat that looked absolutely _horrendous_ on her and trying to convince her to try another, when a dashing young man entered the store dramatically and took Alice's hand in his, holding it tenderly and brought a bouquet of roses out from behind him, "Alyssa, say you'll marry me?" he proposed, an eager smile of his own on his face and hopeful look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Mr. Galler, but whether you ask me tomorrow, next week, the month after, or even a year from now, they answer will _always_ be no_._" she replied, no one at all was surprised by his sudden proposal or Alice's blatant refusal of it, he had been trying to get Alice to marry him since she was eighteen, and he proposed at least four times a month, but really tried for seven times a week.

Mr. Galler then stood up, having already expected this to be her answer, "Very well then, I shall allow you a night to think on it, and I will return again to-morrow." he announced, before leaving the shop with a skip in his step.

Alice rolled her eyes and turned back to continue persuading the customer to purchase a different hat, she eventually succeeded and the customer went off with a hat that suited her much better than the other ever could have. The shop was especially quiet for the day. Alice supposed everyone had bought their hats the day before or suddenly went insane and had decided to buy them elsewhere, even though everyone should have known that _Hatter's Hats_ was _the_ place to buy them. So when the mail finally arrived that morning Alice was the only one there when the mailman came, saying that there was something for Alyssa, Alice immediately thought it was a love letter of some sort from one of her admirers, as there wasn't even a return address, but not wanting to be mean, she opened the letter anyway and read through it.

_'Dear Alyss a,_

_I've been writing and rewriting this letter for the better part of, well, a decade now, I just, have not known how to write everything down, everything I want to tell you, everything I _should_ tell you, but it's very difficult, the words, there really aren't any, to tell you what I've been feeling, for almost twenty years now, since the day I first met you really. Of course, you don't recall it, I don't suppose you ever will, and I'm still not sure if that's a good thing, I embarrassed myself so much that I am still amazed I had the courage to even continue to look at you, at the age I was at. I don't mean to sound strange, like a stalker or something of the sort, I can honestly say that I do not know what you do every morning, who you talk to, or even if you're married already, I suppose if you are married, then this letter doesn't mean much anymore, not to you at least, but this letter, tries but miserably fails to contain the entirety of my heart within its two dimensional boundaries. This letter, is all the weakness I have in my body, the only thing that can truly break me in this whole world, that I have traveled the entirety of a _thousand_ times over. Not one frightening thing I have ever seen in all my travels, can compare to complete terror coursing through my veins as I write this; nor can the Roondren flowers in the Valley of Silence or the reflection of the moon on the Lake of a Thousand Dreams in that country in the middle of the Volcanic Plains that no one believes to _exist_, compare to the beauty of this person I am writing this letter for. How I have missed you, like the flowers miss the sun at night, like a fulson bird misses its mate at twilight; listen to me, speaking like this when I really don't know you, only a year, and what, a month, in these twenty years that I claim to have loved you, did I actually speak with you, and yet, there is still no one else, who with the mere thought of my heart skips a beat, that if one thing makes me think of any of the days we spent together, you run through my head, slipping from my grasp like smoke, you, horrid vixen that you are, have plagued me in mind, soul, and heart, you have all of me even though you have not seen me for so long, even though, bastard that I am, I cannot dare to face you. Would you have me if I were to see you again? I should hope not, for although I am the strongest in body, I am the weakest in heart for you, you need someone that is strong enough, that should I meet him, my jealous rage will not kill him, and stronger still to love you honestly, not like this coward that dares to call himself a man. My dear, I am sorry that I am so, so afraid, so worthless that I can barely tell you in a letter, and much less to you yourself, I cannot tell you in the right words, the depths of how I much I care for you, how I would _live_ a thousand times the most _horrible_ life if it meant that I might save you from certain death at least once. I am too spineless to tell you to your face three simple words that others have said to each other for longer than recorded history can say. I, I love you, I love you, I love you like the Romeo and Juliet of your world have loved each other for centuries, I love you as, as, greater than the greatest love in any world has ever been. I _love_ you._

_From a coward without the decency to properly finish a letter or sign his name,_

_C. C.'_

Alice was completely shocked at the complete sincerity of the letter, and the faint familiar scent that traveled with, she held it close and breathed it in deeply, careful of its yellowed edges, and the softness of the paper at the creases, not caring for the scratches and blots of ink, the writing that at parts, looked as though the writer either was not used to writing or was on the move. She loved this faceless admirer for the voice that she could feel through the words, for not _dying_ for her, but _living;_ of course, all of her admirers had said they would die for her, but dying is too easy, to live for someone, that was the most difficult thing to do. She read the unknown admirer's letter a dozen times over before it finally dawned on her '_I love you like the Romeo and Juliet of _your_ world_' this man knew she was not truly Alyssa, that she was _Alice_, that was why he had written Alyssa strangely, because Alyss, was closer to her true name.

Alice knew who it was that wrote the letter, really it should have been more obvious, truthfully she should not have been so surprised, but still, she fell to the ground with the shock of her realization, he was alive, he was _alive_,_ he was alive_! How good it felt to Alice to say it, how happy it made her, and how she cried joyously to know that the feelings she still held for her dear Cat rang true in him as well.

When Hatter and Hare finally entered the store to start their day, only to find that Alice was sitting on the ground, crying like a child, they immediately panicked, thinking she might have been attacked in their absence, and when they asked her what had happened, she could only tell them that she was not injured through her tears, save for a breaking heart; as she had realized, that even though Cat felt for her as she felt for him, she could not tell him, and he, being who he was, would never dare to show his face to her, there was only one person she could think of who _might_ know where to find her Cat.

"I need to see Calico."


	16. Searching for a Cat

A/N: Sorry, I haven't updated in two, almost three now, weeks because school has just been so hectic, I had to work last weekend on a project, presented it on Tuesday, I have another project to present tomorrow, I have a French test coming up on Friday, I need to make a poster with a comic in French on it due Monday, I have the idea all planned out, just need to translate it and put it on the poster. I haven't even been able to write an actual chapter in these past few weeks because I have homework almost everyday and it's just been so time consuming that I can't write anything because of it, I'm sorry, the few days where I haven't had homework I've tried to write, but I've just been so tired from school, sorry.

I would like to thank all of the people that favorited/alerted/reviewed, even though I've not updated in so long, thank you dudes, you all rock hard: Jhinra and James Birdsong, the ever dedicated reviewers, Deatheater Tonks for favoriting, Mageblood, a new reviewer who also alerted the story, and DancingWithTheImaginary, for favoriting; yay, that was a _lot_ more people that usual! :D

I hope you all enjoy! RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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"What?" Hatter asked immediately, the furrow of confusion showing the wrinkles that had developed on his still aging face.

"I need to find Calico Cat." was all Alice could say, as she hurried to stand up and rushed off to her room to begin packing for however long her journey may be.

"Wait, Alice why, I mean, what?" Hare asked now, as he and Hatter both rushed after her, to stop her frenzy and figure out just what was going on.

"He's _alive_!" Alice replied excitedly, she ignored their confused faces and kept going, "He's alive, I thought he was dead, but he's still alive, and he _loves _me, he _**loves**_ me, I need to find him, and Calico is the only way I can."

Hatter grabbed a hold of Alice by her shoulders and shook her, a little, "Alice, who are you talking about?"

"Cat!" she answered, before forcing herself out of his grip and continued packing her bags. Hatter really did not want to tell her that he had long since been having contact with the aloof Cat, but by Cat's demands had not told Alice about this, besides it wasn't like Hatter knew where Cat was either, he never had a return address, he would only send letters telling of his work in helping to build a resistance against the Queen with the help of the King and would mention little else.

"D-do you even know where you're going to start?" Hatter asked, trying to stop her from leaving, Cat had said in his last letter to make sure that Alice did not leave the village and go anywhere near the capital, because there was supposed to be a revolt soon and he did not want her getting caught in the crossfire.

"No, but I can find out." Alice replied positively, closing up her luggage full of clothing, until Hatter put his hand on the top, stopping it from closing.

"At least, let us go with you." he told her, and she smiled, hugging Hatter strongly, "We should be ready to leave to find Calico in about a week or two, so just wait until then." he told her, and Hare gave Alice a quick smile before going off with his now legal lover.

"Hatter, what's on your mind?" the younger boy asked, he knew his Hatter too well to be fooled by the perfect calm look on his face.

Hatter sighed and removed his hat to run a hand through his chin length, red hair, "Too many things." was his only answer to his young lover before entering the back of the store to make more hats for the front. Hare frowned a little, but then hurried to follow after Hatter to help with the hat making.

-

Alice was again at the counter, reading the letter again with a smile on her face, and the doors to the store opened to admit Mr. Galler, who again had a rather large bouquet of roses and was about to ask for Alice for her hand in marriage again, when he noticed the dreamy eyed look on her face as she stared at the letter.

"Well then Alyssa, are you thinking of me?" he asked, with a confident smile on his face.

"Not if my life depended on it, Mr. Galler." she replied smoothly, still gazing at the letter with far away eyes.

His face fell slightly and then he tried to get a look at what the letter said, but Alice was too quick for him and stored the letter in a dress pocket before he could see it, rather surprising the jubileedee who had been sleeping in said pocket, but then merely held onto the letter and listened to the conversation being held, "Well then, I want to know what it is that can make my Alyssa look at a letter that way." he demanded, a frown marring his face.

"No." Alice said, "Firstly, I belong to no one, and secondly, this letter is for my eyes and my eyes alone."

"Well then, tell me what he's like, so I can be better than him."

"Now _that_ is as impossible as my marrying you, this man is stronger than all the strongest men in Wonderland and Gabbory combined, he saved me from a jabberwocky once, and he is so brave that the only thing he fears is me, can you believe that?" Alice replied, having pulled out the letter again, which had made the jubileedee scoot as far away from it as possible so he wouldn't get carried out of the pocket with it; and was gazing at it again.

"That doesn't really tell me what he's like though." was Mr. Galler's reply.

"He can be very mean, rude, sarcastic, ignorant, and he hasn't contacted me in almost ten years, save for this letter I got yesterday; but he's also very kind, and brave, and sweet; he thinks I can't remember a thing from when we first met, but I can now recall that entire first year from when we met, I suppose you could say we were childhood sweethearts, and he's very handsome, but I don't really care much for that, I care more about _him_."

Mr. Galler merely nodded his head, "So basically, if I save you from a wild jabberwocky, you'll marry me?" this earned him a harsh glare from Alice.

"Never! This is the only man I could ever even _hope_ to dream of marrying." she told him, holding the letter close to her chest, but then she seemed to be sad, "That is, if he would even _want_ to marry me, perhaps he won't even like me anymore." she sighed sadly, knowing this might be a possibility, Alice was no longer the same overly innocent, too trusting, overly kind, unknowledgeable-about-the-world child she had been when she came to Wonderland.

"Well then, he's mad and I will gladly take you for a wife." Mr. Galler replied, hoping to make Alice feel better, but instead he earned himself another glare,

"I would kindly ask for you to leave now, Mr. Galler." Alice suggested, more ordered really, but that was beside the point, the man then left the store as Alice had asked, and she was again left to read the letter, only more sadly now, with thoughts of Cat never wanting her dancing like sugar plums in her head.

-

It was not until a week later that Hatter finally said they could leave, he had needed to make preparations, and figure out where Calico was, it turned out she was not too far away, only about two day's journey from where they were by carriage, but Hatter decided that for this trip, it would be safer to go by berseen, so it would more likely take about a day and a half if they did not rest too often and as long as they packed lightly. The group left the shop in the capable hands of one of Hatter's employees who he saw as trustworthy enough so as to not steal their money, and smart enough that the idea would not cross his mind anyway.

Hatter and Hare were sharing their berseen, as March had just barely passed by, and Hare had been sickly all through it, as he was every year; and as always Hatter was overly worried for his younger lover and did not want him falling off his berseen; and so Hare was stuck in-between the berseen's neck and Hatter's chest, which in truth very much annoyed the young man and greatly amused Alice.

Alice was actually a very good rider, she remembered the very first time she saw a berseen, and she had been so terrified. They were very frightening creatures really, with ugly, wrinkled faces from which two very white, pupiless eyes suddenly jumped out of the grey skin, and their bodies were more something like a very ugly dog and an even uglier duck had a love child, and the child ended up with the worst of both parents; the creatures were infamous for their fur and feather striped skins. Yet, besides their frighteningly disturbing appearance, they were actually very sweet creatures with good temperaments, but were not hunted, because they were horrible tasting things, thanks to their natural diet of basically anything deemed unfit for normal consumption of even jabberwockies, and they ate numerous things, but even then they knew where to draw the line, unlike berseens. All of this combined, made for a very good riding creature, since they were almost as tall as Hatter, who had _grown_ _more_ in the past eight years and was now a good seven feet and five inches, the berseens fell just a few inches short, which made them far taller than Alice and Hare were, so most people needed help when climbing onto one of the huge creatures.

Her berseen, was one she had had for two or three years now, a rather pretty one compared to most, that she had named Caramel, for its brown fur and feathers; who, for whatever reason, had a penchant for nipping at people's hair, this was a very uncommon trait in berseens as they more often liked to steer clear of people they were not already familiar with, but Caramel defied her species and readily gnawed on the hair of any random passerby. Alice's jubileedee very much liked to sit on top of Caramel's head and make itself a bed out of the wrinkles, and whenever Caramel was trying to eat people's hair, the jubileedee would merely bite the sensitive skin at the top of the berseen's head that it was burrowed in, and Caramel would immediately stop any and all actions; it was actually a very good relationship between the two.

They traveled long and hard in the cold weather, even though March was out, the weather still had not changed from lion to lamb, but was still somewhere in the transition between the two, and so the lavender leaves of the trees were stuck somewhere between being bare and flowering with black buds, that would eventually turn into bright violet flowers; none of the trees rightly knowing which to do, making for a very monochromatic forest, something Alice was still not very used to seeing in Wonderland. Yet, just as Hatter had said, they reached the small village where Calico was supposed to live in just a day and a half with no incident. Once they arrived, they asked the locals where they might find the woman, who easily pointed them to some house that was at the edge of the village, unlike her brother, Tabby, had; Calico did not live in a large mansion, but instead, a rather modest white log cabin, in front of which she was seated in a rocking chair, merely knitting while three children were running about the yard in front, two of them had cat ears like her, one with tabby ears, and the other with grey ears, the third child had no special ears or peculiarities to her.

Calico looked up at the group, as they were getting off their berseens to walk up to her, she then called her children to go inside the house, but remained seated herself, still knitting even though she was staring at the group warily. They got closer to her and she stopped her knitting to stand up to properly greet them, Alice could now see that Calico was pregnant with a fourth child. She noticed that Calico, like her brothers, had dark skin, dark hair, and one murky yellow eye and one too green eye.

"Well, who are you and what are you here for?" she asked, her multicolored ear twitched at some distant noise, and she suddenly turned to glare at the window, of which the curtain suddenly moved, as though someone had decided to not face their mother's wrath and not eavesdrop on the conversation.

"Well, that really depends on whether or not you are a loyalist to the Queen of Hearts." Hatter answered.

"Heh, out here, who actually thinks they're a subject of Wonderland?" Calico asked, to which Hatter nodded.

"I would still prefer to answer that when we are further away from listening ears." he replied, glancing at the nearby house, to which Calico nodded and led the group into her home. She then motioned them to a small living room area, with a couch and a few chairs tactfully placed about, she then left to what was assumed to be the kitchen, because she returned with a modest tea set and a few modest snacks.

"Well then, who are you and what do you want?" she asked, now sipping at her tea as her multicolored tail swished softly behind her.

"Madame, I am Hatter, that is Hare, and _this_, is the Princess of Hearts, Alice." he replied for all them the, woman blinked, quite surprised, before standing and curtsying to Alice, who was not at all used to this sort of thing from a woman so much older than her.

"Then, what might I do to help, Your Majesty?" she asked, still standing, as thought it would be too rude of her to sit again, and so Alice motioned for the woman to sit down, not wanting to make a pregnant woman stand just for her.

Here Hatter turned to look at Alice, since it _was_ for her that they had gone all this way just to see _the_ Calico Cat, and so Alice asked, "Well, I was hoping, that maybe you knew where, um, Cheshire, was?"

Calico sighed and said, "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen Cheshire in almost eight years now, not since after Tabby and Grey were born, he stayed for about a month, to see if Grey's birth meant he would die, instead he didn't so left to some place, I don't know where." she paused and seemed to have realized something, "But Black and White might know, they always know what's going on with all of us and where we are, although, honestly, I'm not sure if they _would_ tell you, even if you are the Princess, they're just very, well, annoying like that."

"Oh, well thank you, do you know where Black and White are, I want to see if they'll tell me anyway?" Alice asked.

"Oh yes, they're at their spring home, the Jadesen Estate up in the Kukubura Mountains, although, I really think you should wait until they go to their summer home, in Beensen Valley, the Kukubura Mountains can be very dangerous at this time."

"But, I reallyneed to see Cat." Alice said softly, almost thinking that maybe they just weren't meant to see each other ever again.

Calico felt pity for the poor girl, she sighed, "You know, in all his life, he's never dropped in on his family unless they have something he wants or he has something to do with them, so much less does he bother to keep up with any of us. I suppose he cares a lot for you if he's willing to at least send a letter, even if it did take him almost eight years to do so." Alice didn't seem too cheered up by this news, "Well, there is an easier way through the Kukubura Mountains."

"What is it?" Alice asked immediately.

"Well, I know of random spots around here that aren't quite normal, if you aren't careful and you get stuck in one for too long, then you wind up somewhere else completely; I got the hang of these special spots when I was younger and consider myself as something of adept in the art of using these spots to get to whatever other place I need to go to, at least, I'm better at it than most people, Cheshire was really the one who could use them better, heck, he could get to anywhere using those spots, he didn't even have to go to them, just thought about the spot and he'd be there."

Alice blinked several times before she fully knew what Calico was talking about, "You mean, my playrooms?" she asked, to which now Calico stared at her with a question in her eyes, "Well, that is what Cat said, that my father made those places as playrooms for me, to keep me safe from my mother I suppose." and to this Calico only nodded her head.

"Well, I am sorry I cannot lead you to the spot, I have to be careful with these ones, make sure neither of these two kills one of their aunts or their uncles." Calico said, smiling sadly at her bulging stomach.

"Can I-?" Alice asked, but did not finish, instead motioning that she wanted to touch the belly.

"Oh, yes, of course, Your Majesty, they're kicking more with each day, such feisty children." Calico said, smiling down at her stomach, and Alice tentatively placed her hand on the woman's stomach, at first feeling nothing, but then her face morphed quickly to one of surprise when she felt one of the children in the woman's belly kick back at her.

"I hope they're born safely." Alice told her.

"As do I." Calico answered, rubbing her stomach thoughtfully, before grabbing the pen and paper on a table nearby and writing something down, "These are the directions to the nearest spot that allows you to travel, I wish you all the best of luck." and she stood to lead them out of the house and back to their berseens.

Calico was then walking back into the house, but Alice called out to her, "Calico is there anything you want us to tell Cat when we see him?"

Calico glanced back at Alice and smiled, "Just tell him to treat you better." and she closed the door to her house behind her.


	17. Journey to Kukubura

A/N: I am so sorry for not updating in like, forever, I've just been busy with shoolwork/I got a new laptop, so I've been getting used to it/I was lazy/etc., these are the excuses I could use, but I don't deserve to try and protect myself with an excuse. Anyway, I saw Alice in Wonderland, directed by the ever brilliant and magnificent Tim Burton (I would marry the man if he weren't fifty-something and was handsome), so that has totally reinspired me and given me the perfect idea for the upcoming events, though you won't see its influences for another two chapters.

Anyway, to the honorary thanking of all readers for favoriting/reviewing/alerting: Jhinra, as always for reviewing, Kerauno, for favoriting, Ever-changing Eyes, for favoriting and alerting, StarElz for favoriting, and Life is all we got, for alerting. All these people are pwnsome, seriously, they rox my sox! XD

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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"Hatter, are you _sure _we're going the right way?"

Hatter turned his eyes to glare at the younger boy in front of him, before turning his gaze back to the directions on the paper before him, "Yes, I am _sure_."

"I think we're lost." Hare replied.

"We are not _lost ..._ we are simply taking a different route to the same location." was Hatter's clever answer.

"So we're lost, aren't we?" Alice more confirmed than asked, also attacking Hatter's sense of direction now.

Hatter glared at both of his companions, before just throwing his hands up and shouting, "Ok, yes, we're lost, happy now that I've admitted it!"

"Just a little." Hare answered, smiling at the older man who was now sending him an evil glare.

"You are _so very_ lucky I love you." Hatter told him, still glaring at the blond.

"I love you too, even if you _do_ have the worst sense of direction _ever_."

"Oh yes, thank you so very much."

"Can you two stop flirting and get us on the right track?" Alice asked her friends, of whom, Hatter glared at her and Hare blushed lightly.

"Here then, why don't _you_ try to get us on the right path if you're all complaining about my directional skills." Hatter growled, tossing the paper at Alice and taking the reins to the berseen from Hare's grip.

"You know what, I _will_." she replied, and then began leading them away from where they had originally been going, they went around a certain tree three times, and while going straight, Alice was positive she saw the same peculiarly shaped shrub, the fifth time they passed by the same shrub, Alice decided to investigate it. She approached, still on the berseen, and then she felt that strange and vaguely familiar feeling of being pulled and pushed in at the same time; during this strange feeling Caramel was tossing her head and almost bucked Alice off, but once the feeling stopped, she stopped as well, quickly after them came Hatter and Hare on their berseen; and they all stared at their new surroundings.

The clearing, was not the same clearing that Cat had led her to all those years ago, but was instead a completely different one. This clearing had orange leaved trees with yellow trunks and strange green fruits growing from the branches, red grass, and a purple colored, upside down waterfall; yet, the flowers that had been at the last playroom of Alice's were again here, and they waved and smiled at the group.

The group was silent a moment, before Alice turned to her friends, "I said I could get us here." she told them, although rather surprised as well that she had been able to do so.

"I guess, only the Cats, you, and your father can enter here, that was why it would let me find it." Hatter replied, as he got off his berseen and helped Hare down before going over to help Alice down as well.

"I suppose that would make sense." Alice said, leading the berseens to the waterfall, which suddenly stilled as they approached and began growing the most foul of swamp weeds that Alice had ever heard of or seen; the berseens eagerly began drinking the still water and eating the horrid plants, once they had taken their fill and walked off, the plants disappeared and the waterfall began running again.

"Well, that was interesting." Hatter said as he approached the water and took a drink of it making, Hare and Alice both stare at him with concern, not a moment ago it had been water well suited for a berseen, "It's safe." he told them, "Hm, it seems it changes with whoever approaches it and what their intentions are." then he pulled out a dagger and stabbed it into the water, pulling it out to find that a fish was stabbed upon it, "Definitely a useful little waterfall here." he said, stabbing the water twice more so that he now had dinner for the group.

"Are we staying here for the night?" Alice asked as Hatter gathered some sticks for firewood.

"Yes, because we wasted all that time trying to find this bloody place it's too late to continue, and besides, we don't even know how to get there, we have to wait for the flowers to tell us when we're there." Hatter replied, so Alice sighed and resigned herself to watching him as he cooked the meal, they finished it quickly and simply all went to sleep soon after.

The next day when they awoke, felt the same as the last, as in, nothing in the clearing had changed, and Alice sat next to the flowers, listening to them sing, while Hatter and Hare were reading some book together.

Alice watched the flowers, listening to them singing about the Volcanic Plains, certainly not where they wanted to go; when she realized something if she was the one that could find the place, then maybe, she could _guide_ it too. She knelt closer to the flowers and as they finished their song, before they could start another, she asked them to take the group to the Jadesen Estate up in the Kukubura Mountains, and so after speaking amongst themselves for a short time, they began singing about a pair of twins up in a mountain mansion.

Hatter and Hare immediately looked up as the singing began and clambered to get everything in order so they could leave before the song finished; the group was able to make it out of the clearing in enough time and found themselves just a hop, skip, and a jump from the gates to the Jadesen Estate. The group walked their berseens up to the gates and as they did so, Alice could now see why Hatter had made her put on her coat that she had brought with her, although it was only spring, this far up in the Kukubura Mountains, it was already snowing and the temperature was well below that of where they had just been.

The group was a bit surprised to find that as soon as they approached the gates, they opened of their own accord for the group to continue through, and once they were, the gates closed by themselves; but they paid no mind to this and instead walked to the door of the Estate, which was answered a young boy who told them the masters of the Estate were already waiting and he would take care of their items. The group entered a waiting room, from which they were led by an old maid to another much more elaborate room where a pair of Cats were draped over a couch.

The White and Black Cats were like their other siblings in that they had dark skin and one of them had black hair, but the other, unlike the rest of her siblings, had white hair to go with her white cat ears and tail, she also had bright blue eyes that stared at them without seeing them; Alice briefly wondered if this was because of that old myth that white cats with blue eyes were either both deaf and blind or just one of those, she could never remember how it properly went. The Black Cat had black cat ears that twitched as the maid led them to sit and _bright_ yellow eyes that watched their every move, he then moved himself from draped over the couch to a sitting position, after whispering something in his sister's ear and she too sat up, apparently she was only blind, not deaf as well.

"We've been waiting for you." Black began; he had a deep voice that held a strange quality to it.

"It's very rude to keep us waiting." White continued, she had a soft voice with a lilting to it, like she sang everything she said without meaning to, but somehow still making it not seem _too_ strange.

"We are very sorry then." Alice replied curtsying, and subtly kicking Hatter and Hare since they were slow to bow.

"Tell me, Black, is the future Queen of Wonderland at least pretty?"

"Not as much as you, of course, White."

The group stayed silent, mostly because Alice's heel was threatening the feet of Hatter and Hare if they did dare to say anything; and for whatever reason, she was not surprised how they already knew who she really was.

"You came to see if we knew where Cheshire was, didn't you?" White asked Alice, finally changing her blank stare from the door where they had originally entered to Alice's face, staring exactly into her eyes without seeing them.

Alice was silent for only a fraction moment, due to her nerves being shaken by the blind woman's easy finding of her, "Yes."

"Hm, well, we know where he is." White answered with a smile, Alice stayed quiet, knowing she wasn't finished, "But what you _really_ want to know, is if we'll _tell_ you, is that right, Princess of Hearts?"

Alice nodded, before remembering that her hostess was blind and then saying, "Yes."

White turned her head to glance at Black, who merely shrugged and nodded at his sister, who then turned back to Alice, "Very well, we shall tell you where he is, what you do with this information is well beyond our concern." White told the group before continuing, "He's in Wonderland, the capital, hiding in the rebellion headquarters disguised as a bakery under the name of _Jack's Tarts_, there's going to be a revolt against the reigning Queen very soon, they're hoping that soon after they will be able to place you in power with the King as your advisor."

"How soon is the rebellion to take place?"

White and Black both closed their eyes in thought, before White opened her eyes, although Black kept his closed, and she answered, "Hmm, about two, three days, I would say, it could just as easily be tomorrow, or it might not even happen for another year, they keep changing the plan too often for it to be stable."

"Thank you." Alice replied, as she stood, and so her companions did as well, she curtsied and they did as well, Hatter being a little more fluid in his than Hare, he was able to vaguely recall his lessons from when he was still a member of the Time family, and Hare, unlike his two companions, had no prior training on proper etiquette, having come from a common family.

"Ah, wait a moment, Tom is here." Black announced, finally opening his eyes.

"He is?" White asked her brother.

"Yes, it would seem he is outside the door, listening in and thinking we do not know he is here."

"Well then, Tom, get in here." White said to the door, which slowly opened, to admit a young man, probably a year or two older than Hare, with the trademark dark skin and black hair of the Cat family line, and a ginger striped set of ears accompanied with the same patterned tail, and a pair of light green eyes.

"Yeah?" he asked, pretending that he hadn't been listening in on the conversation.

"Tom, you will be going with this group, there's something you have to deliver to Cheshire, make sure it gets there safely."

"Ok." Tom replied, before slipping out the door

"Yes, well then, good bye, Miss Alice, Sir Time, and Mister Ears." White told the group as they exited, leaving them with questions as to the conversation they just had with a blind girl that knew exactly who they were without ever seeing them and a quiet boy that spoke more with his eyes.

The group was met outside the door by the same servant boy they had first met when they arrived to the estate, who led them back out and to their waiting berseens, and Tom who was also seated upon his own berseen already.

Tom gave the group a strange look, before instead leading his berseen out of the estate already, while the other three were still getting onto theirs. They had to rush to catch up with Tom, but were able to do so easily enough; and soon veered off the path and into a different one of Alice's playrooms, this one seeming to be confused about the seasons and had trees that were flowering with giant bright yellow flowers in their watery colored leaves with the red trunks and the grass was a strange sort of mix between a strange shade of blue with a burnt orange color, and the waterfall looked exactly like the inside of a kiwi fruit, that is, it would, if anyone in the group knew what the inside of a kiwi fruit looked like, or what one was for that matter. The only consistent factor to all of these playrooms were that the same flowers were situated near the kiwi like waterfall, Alice went up to the flowers and asked them to stop at the queendom of Wonderland, so they began to sing some ballad that minstrels commonly played in the capital, and the group then left to find themselves in a forest quite some ways from the walls of the capital.

Tom then began to lead the group own the road to the capital; and after quite some time of an awkward silence in the group, Alice decided to break it.

"So, Tom, just what did White and Black ask you to deliver, if you don't mind my asking that is?"

Tom glanced back at her for a short bit, before turning back and answering, "You, of course, Your Majesty."


	18. In the Capital

A/N: I've been busy, sorry, I just finished midterms today, thank gosh, I hate that math midterm, I'm sure I did uber bad *headdesk* and I totally just BS'd my English essay, the only things I knowIdid well on are speech(come on, it's _speech_, and our midterm was a project we'd already been doing for like a week, I got a 100) and French(but I like French, I got an 82, wasn't really trying, and I knew I messed up conduire and some of the vocab I'd half forgotten) and next week I start practicing for the French competition coming up, I'm participating in the skit(once we plan it out) and poetry(once I get a poem) sections.

Anyway, enough of my life, to thanking the readers, I love you all, now special dedications, favoriters/reviewers/alerters: James Birdsong, the ever diligent reviewer, he has such a way with short words, ILY James :D, and Xxheartbroken54xX, I don't remember if I replied to your review, did I?, even if I didn't(for which I'm terribly sorry), you are an awesome individual for both reviewing and favoriting both the story and myself.

I've realized something, I'm continuously I'm going to end this story soon, but it never actually happens, I've tried writing the last chapter like three different times, each time I get distracted by something else entirely. Also, in two chapters, you're going to find out something surprising about a rather important character that's been unjustly ignored, I'm sorry very important character, but you just never came up.

I would like to put one warning here, to those of you who really like the AliceXCat pairing, don't be angry when you get around the middleish endish place, that's just how Cat is, and you'll be happy again in like, four chapters, sorry.

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"What?" Alice asked, rushing her berseen to catch up with the Cat.

"You, y-o-u, you." he replied, as though they were in some sort of spelling bee contest.

"I still don't understand, why would they ask you to _deliver_ me to Cat?"

"To make sure no one finds out who you are and you get there safely, of course, Your Majesty." Tom replied stoically, more focused on guiding his berseen down the straight road than conversing with the young princess.

"Um, ok then." Alice replied, seeing she wouldn't get much clearer an answer than that from the boy, "So, Tom, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm more like Calico, I have a legal way of earning money, just because I won't get in trouble doesn't mean I'll commit crimes." he replied, and then answered the question clearly, "I guide people to their destination safely, for a fee of course, depending on the harshness of the travel and distance." he seemed to think of something and then said, "Don't worry, you aren't really paying for this, White and Black are, and besides that, the fee will be pretty cheap, all considering."

Hatter glared at the ginger colored Cat, who merely ignored him and led them through the gates, showing his papers, and Hatter showed the guards their _forged_ papers, who, luckily, did not suspect a thing about their papers, and let the entire group through the gates and into the capital easily.

Tom then led the way through the hustle and bustle of the capital, that for whatever reason, he could easily navigate about, and not once did he have to ask for directions to anywhere, within twenty minutes or so, they had navigated all the way to _Jack's Tarts_, which at present was deserted for some reason.

Tom had everyone tie up their berseens in the back, and then they knocked on the front door, and someone from what appeared to be the kitchen exited and frowned at them, before heading to the door and sticking his head out to speak with them.

"The store's closed, can't you see that?" he asked, he looked very tired, dark bags hung under his brown eyes and his brown hair was looking a bit dingy.

Tom ignored this comment and instead said, "I have something to deliver to the Cheshire Cat, it's urgent."

The man stared at him for a good long while before replying, "Well then, good luck finding him." and he moved to close the door again, but Tom held it open, easily.

"Sir, I happen to know for a matter of fact that Cheshire is here, now either you can _let_ us in, or I _will force_ my way through, your choice."

The man glared at him for a short while, before stalking off from the door and exiting through the kitchen door, but he had left the door to the bakery wide open, so they entered, making sure to lock the door after them. Tom led them through the kitchen, in which they could find no trace of the tired looking man, whatsoever. Tom seemed to know what he was doing though, and walked over to a pantry, which he opened, and he pulled the string to turn on the light; it looked like a perfectly normal pantry, then he easily pushed one of the walls inside, and it opened to show itself to be a fake door with a set of stairs leading down. Tom motioned for them to follow him, and Alice was right behind the man, with Hatter holding up the rear, in case if someone had seen them come this way and decided they were suspicious looking sorts.

The stairs led to an underground meeting area of sorts, and while some leader of the revolutionaries was shouting inspirational things to them, people nearby were staring at the newcomers for short periods of time, before turning their attentions back to the leader up on stage. They stopped, not far from where they had entered, and just listened to what of the speech they could hear, which wasn't much in the first place, the acoustics of the area were horrible, and the fact that so many people were murmuring or whispering to each other also muted the leader's voice. Then they couldn't see him for the multitude of people in the crowd, save for Hatter, he was tall enough to look over the majority of the crowd, but even then, they were at such a distance that his height and sharp eye amounted to little; he couldn't really make out much of the people on the stage at any rate.

They spoke for thirty or so more minutes, and when they ended, Tom easily led his group through the crowd and towards the stage, which was too high for them to see on top of it, even if they craned their necks all the way, except for Hatter, he was about a foot taller than the stage; he easily saw over it and smirked.

"Hey, your brother's got a package for you." he told the person on the stage, who walked over to the edge and looked down at the group, his eyes widening slightly at Alice and glaring into narrow slits at his brother.

"Tom." Cat said in more of a growl, as he jumped down from the stage easily.

"She comes from White and Black, Calico says to treat her better, White wants me to purchase some of the tarts here, they're supposed to be some of the best in all of Wonderland, and Black wants to know if he can participate in the revolt if and when it happens." Tom told his brother.

"Which is exactly why she should have stayed in Gabbory." Cat told him, knowing his brother would understand what he meant by that.

"She came to White and Black of her own accord, hoping to find you." Tom told him, "And personally, I agree with Calico, treat her better, I mean, she _is _the Princess, isn't she?"

People near to the group and those whose curiosity had drawn them to the argument between the Cats were now murmuring amongst themselves and staring critically at Alice, wondering if this was indeed the long time missing Princess Alice of Hearts and they called forth other people in case if this was truly her and not wanting them to miss it.

Cat was glaring harshly at his brother, "Oh, sorry, was that supposed to be a secret, Cheshire?" Tom asked, not sounding in the least bit apologetic.

Another, slightly older, man from the stage jumped down and stared at Cat, then to Alice, and back at Cat, "Is she really,_ her_?" Cat didn't answer, but was still glaring at his brother, "Cheshire." the man demanded, and then Cat was glaring at nothing, before closing his eyes as he sighed heavily and nodded his head. The other man's eyes widened and he glanced again at Alice before returning his attention to Cat, "Why didn't you tell me you knew her?" Cat didn't answer, and was instead glaring at the people who had gathered when they heard who the blonde girl really was, but thanks to Cat's stern glare, they kept their distance.

Cat finally turned his glare to Hatter, "I told you to keep her in Gabbory." he told the man, his voice dripping with unconcealed venom.

"Not my fault if your letter got her wanting to see you." Hatter replied, crossing his arms, and refusing to accept all the blame for this.

"Letter?" Cat asked, "What are you talking about?" he was honestly confused.

"This letter." Alice replied, removing the letter from her pocket and handing it to Cat, who glanced it over quickly, then turned a completely evil glare to someone on the other end of the room.

"Just because it has an address and is in an envelope does_ not_ mean that it is to be sent!" he growled at the person, before turning and storming off somewhere, still holding onto the letter, and before Alice could even think to catch up with him, she was instead surrounded by eager citizens who wanted to get the first look at the young woman who was really the long time missing Princess of Hearts.

"Hey, hey, hey!" the man who had spoken to Cat shouted, making people back away from Alice as he gathered their attention, "Give the Princess some respect, and a little personal space, please!" he shouted at the other revolutionaries, who backed away from the blond slowly, "Now, to those of you that might have doubted our chance at winning this revolution, what do you think now? Now that we have the Princess of Hearts herself here before us!" at all the commotion going on outside, and perhaps by some knowledge that only he was privy to, the jubileedee climbed out of Alice's dress pocket and settled itself onto her head, where everyone could stare at it with mouths agape.

The revolution leader also gaped at the appearance of the jubileedee, before suddenly grinning, "See, if that is not a sign that our revolution will end well, then I do not know what _is_!" and the crowd exploded into cheers, screaming and yelling out phrases that must have been coined during the long revolt, but with all the different phrases being yelled at different times and so loudly, Alice could understand nothing that was shouted; although, judging by Hatter's frown at some of the phrases, it was probably for the best that she did not.

It took quite a while, some quick talking, and lots of hand shaking, baby kissing, bowing, and curtsying, but _finally_, all of the people left the bakery, slowly and as inconspicuously as possible. Alice and her companions were instead led to some rooms in the underground area, where they could stay for the night.

Alice was led to her room first, and Hatter and Hare were led elsewhere to their own rooms; the room was of fair size, with only a little furniture, a nice bed, a little drawer for clothing, a small desk and a full size mirror; she supposed it was because bringing down things from a bakery and into a hidden underground meeting place like this, must be more difficult than one might first assume. She walked to the bed and flopped down onto it, and then screamed into the pillow.

Nothing was going right for her.


	19. The White Queen's Alliance

A/N: Yeah, another chapter, technically, you guys are supposed to get another chapter, I've written three chapters in three days. I've been very bored and have very little homework, hallelujah.

Thank you Jhnira, she was the only reviewer in the short time between chapters. Also, it turns out I was wrong, it's in _this_ chapter that Cat's actions are semi-explained, in another three chapters they're further explained, but yeah, some of you might think of Cat as a bit of a jerk, for lack of a better word, when you read this. Also, next chapter we find out a _lot_ more about a very important character, who's background I absolutely enjoy. Another thing, I wrote this chapter like, either the same night or the day after, I saw Alice in Wonderland, directed by the wonderful Tim Burton(how on _earth_ did you know he was my favorite director?), so you can really see the inspiration from that film, although I did change it up a bit.

Anyway, RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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Alice had been laying on the bed, considering if she should rule her people like a good, soon-to-be Queen of Wonderland, or act like a teenager and smother herself with the pillow to get rid of the nasty, aching feeling in her heart, the latter was looking quite tempting to her. That was when some wonderful person decided to unknowingly save all of future Wonderland by knocking on the door and thus preventing the blonde princess from smothering herself with an innocent and fluffy pillow.

Alice glared at the door, how _dare_ it prevent her from killing herself with a pillow? She sighed, tossed the pillow back and answered the door, where stood Cat, he coughed into his hand and looked about nervously before asking, "May I come in?"

"Um, alright." Alice replied, moving to the side to let him through, he then merely stood awkwardly in the room, and turned back towards her.

"I am sorry." Alice blinked, not quite understanding what he had said the sorry for, "You were not supposed to get that letter, I am sorry for having bothered you with it, think nothing of its contents, I am sorry if its contents have offended you in any way."

Alice merely blinked again, Cat shuffled a bit awkwardly, before nodding his head and moving to leave the room, but Alice stopped him, "Why must you assume that your letter bothered me?" she didn't let him answer, "What if I liked its contents, what if I was happy to read what it said?" she asked him, he stared at her before scoffing.

"Because, this sort of relationship is not allowed, I am a Cat, a descendant of an entire race of slaves, and you are a princess, the Princess of Hearts; the mere idea that a relationship of this manner should ever exist is a laughable one."

"Why then, why did you even write that letter if you had no intention of sending it to me?"

"Because, I liked to think that maybe one day, when I was to leave this world, that then I could send it to you, after you had already found someone to spend your life with, someone who suited you far better than I ever possibly could, when my feelings for you would no longer amount to anything." Cat nearly hissed at her, before forcing his way out the door and again leaving Alice to cry into her pillow over her broken heart.

-

Alice was currently a bit confused, she had been dragged away from moping in her room and into some sort of meeting room, where she was surrounded by several important looking men, and Cat, who were saying something about storming some place, and she couldn't quite follow the flow of conversation. Fortunately, she had Hatter to her right, who would whisper explanations to her, and luckily, none of the men asked her anything.

The meeting ended with a flurry of bowing men and as they went to open the door, a young girl of perhaps fourteen or fifteen, somewhere about there, fell in. Cat glared at the young girl, who smiled up sheepishly, then grumbled, frowned, and rolled her eyes as Cat dragged her a little ways off to lecture her.

The girl's fingers tapped against her face; polished, black nails making a stark contrast to her pale skin and white hair. She wore commoner men's clothes, a long sleeved shirt, torn set of trousers, and well worn pair of brown boots.

"Someone needs to get her in a dress, twenty minutes ago!" someone shouted, pointing at the girl who was receiving a lecture.

"What, why?" other people asked in reply.

"The White Queen of Chessleman is here!"

"What?!"

"She heard about Alice and wanted to see her herself."

"Hello." a new voice said, everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice.

There stood a radiant being, all pale skin, white hair, dark eyes, burgundy lips, burgundy nails, and white frills on a white dress; her very being was one of delicacy, elegance, and above all, commanded attention.

"Oh dear." she went straight up to the young girl, rudely interrupting Cat's lecture on trying to listen in on important strategy meetings; she grabbed the young girl's hand that had been tapping against her face, "What on earth did you do to your nails Amarissa, they used to be such a pretty blue, and then _why_ are you wearing such a _horrid _outfit?"

"The black is to cover up dirt, and I definitely can't help out a revolution if I'm running around in a freaking _dress_, Sister." Amarissa replied, trying to shove away her sister's delicate hands.

"Well, no matter, here, just wear this." she grabbed the younger girl's objecting hand, as though it were perfectly fine with the whole situation, and slipped a blue gemmed ring on the hand's middle finger. The nails on both of Amarissa's hands suddenly lightened until they were perfectly dark blue, and the Queen turned her attention from Amarissa to Cat, "Well then, where is this Alice that I've heard such commotion about already?"

Before Cat could say anything, Alice stepped forward and curtsied to the Queen, "I am Alice."

"_The _Alice?"

"Well, yes." she replied after a hesitant pause, the White Queen gave her a speculative look as did the Queen's younger sister.

The White Queen didn't say anything and raised a hand to her sister's mouth to stop her from saying anything either, she merely stared at Alice, expecting further explanation; it was about then that Alice noticed the White Queen kept both of her hands up, for what reason, she did not know, but she thought it very strange.

"Well, I didn't quite live here for a long time, about ten years, and I've only been back for eight, but until I came here, I didn't even _know_ that being Alice was something this huge, and I don't really believe I can be the sort of Alice everyone wants me to be; I guess I'm just going to be the Alice I've always been, whether or not that is the Alice that everyone has expected me to be."

The White Queen smiled and her younger sister was pulled away by Cat so he could finish his lecture; the White Queen then said, "That is exactly the sort of answer I wanted, Princess of Hearts."

Alice could feel that sweet smile working a special sort of magic on her, making everything feel so much better; she wasn't sure if this was good or not.


	20. The King Has His Reasons

A/N: Wow, I'm lame, in less than four days, I wrote six chapters and updated three. Anyway, time for _one of_, my favorite recently written chapters, and yes, we _are_ going to find out _a lot_ more about the King, he's a total badass like you wouldn't believe. Ah, tomorrow is Monday, but thankfully, I have Friday off from school, yay! So I might write then because I've been rather inspired as of late, I love the chapter that I finished earlier, it's actually pretty depressing, but I just love it because of how I wrote it and who's in it, they're not even essentially important characters, but I love them anyway.

Again, how many times will I have to say this? I think we're nearing the end, either I'm between three to eight chapters close to ending this, let's see if I can keep with that prediction. This is actually the longest thing I've ever written, it's about three chapters short of being 30 chapters long, and it might have to be 35 if I don't keep with my plans and instead add on to the plot like I've _been_ doing since the begining.

Anyway, again there was a very short amount of time between updates, so there was only two reviews, Jhinra, and James Birdsong, of course, they're both very much awesome peoples that I love for always updating, they're the sorts that make authors feel proud of their work and motivate us to keep writing even when things seem hectic in our lives, thank you guys, you're awesomes.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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Things moved quickly after that, Alice was rushed through preparations and plans for the revolution, Black and White ended up arriving a few days after the White Queen, then Tom came back, deciding to show his siblings a vote of confidence and give them news from their sister, who announced that they had two new nieces, of regular birth; all the Cats seemed to have breathed a large sigh of relief at this news.

Although Alice was continuously trying to talk to Cat, he seemed to get out of any room they were both in before she could even get close to him, and then she would be dragged off elsewhere for training in something or other. They were actually teaching her to fight, in case if anyone should think to try and get after the Princess; the resistance efforts would amount to nothing if the Princess of Hearts was kidnapped or killed in the war.

Alice ended up training with Amarissa, who after two weeks in the underground head quarters with each other, still did not like Alice; while her sister, whose name Alice found out was Samarissa shortly after meeting her, was completely fascinated with Alice, especially when she spoke of her life before coming to Wonderland. She always found the world that Alice described so bland, even compared to her kingdom of Chessleman, which had very few colors in it at all, compared with Wonderland at least, which was always at a surplus for colors.

A few days before the set revolution day, someone very important came to visit the rebel head quarters, Alice didn't know who it was, and wasn't very concerned with whoever it may have been. That is, she wasn't, until Amarissa pulled her along to eavesdrop on the meeting that the rebel leaders were having with the anonymous figure; apparently, even though she was to be their future Queen, the rebels didn't think it wise to let her know all of what was going on in the revolution. That led to the two girls leaning against the meeting room door with one end of a glass cup on the door, and the other on their ear; of course, this tactic wasn't working very well, as all they heard were distant mumblings that echoed off the confines of the glass and door.

And that was how the girls were found by the inhabitants of the room, ears pressed against glass cups, until Alice set hers down; since she didn't quite want her surprise to cost Amarissa glass in her hand, she then ran up to the very important visitor, and she hugged her father.

"Alice, what on earth are you doing here?" he asked after their reunion hug.

"Um, what's going on?" Amarissa asked her sister, who had been in the meeting room.

"That's the King of Hearts, the original founder of the rebel group and Alice's father." Samarissa replied, guiding the younger girl, and everyone else, away from the touching and personal reunion between father and daughter.

"Wait, so, the _King_, was the one who started a revolution against his own _wife_?" Amarissa wondered, not quite understanding how that worked out.

"Well, he didn't quite marry her because he _wanted_ to, he was one of the founders of the revolution against the Queen of Hearts mother, and when her mother died, she decided that she would only marry someone that would keep her entertained. He tried to kill her in her sleep, and he got very close to it too, so she decided to marry him; personally, if a commoner man had been able to sneak into my room and almost kill me, I would fire my security, but instead she marries her would-be assassin and deliberately gave him chances to kill her, just to see if he would."

"So, Alice's mom is seriously, mentally fucked up?"

"_Amarissa_! Do not use such language, it is unbecoming of a Princess of Chessleman." at this Amarissa rolled her eyes, "But yes, her mother is, um, a bit, unstable, for lack of a nicer or better term."

"So, psycho?"

"Stop insulting royalty."

"You just called her unstable."

"Yes, but I said it in a nice way." and with that, Samarissa ended their conversation.

_*Many Years Ago*_

_"Leonart! Are you sure you're ready for this?"_

_The young teen with a long tail of black hair behind him just smiled back up at his older friend as he secured his sword in place, "Who's ever ready for a revolution?"_

_The older man shook his head with a slight, sad smile, "Ain't that the truth." then the smiled disappeared, and he put a hand on the young boy's shoulder, "You know, Leonart, you can still get out of this."_

_"Like hell I will, Davith, we might not have gotten what we wanted in the revolution against that bitch's mother, but we're gonna take the devil spawn down at least, and I wanna be the one to cut off her head." Leonart replied, smacking a hand against the sword and dagger in his holster._

_"Off with her head, right?" Davith said, drawing out his dagger and pointing it up at an angle._

_Leonart took out his own and clashed it against Davith's, "Off with her head." he promised._

_Neither of them knew that the phrase would come to mean the ordered executions for hundreds to follow, nor did Davith know that it would be one of the last things he would say to the younger boy who had become a brother to his son._

_*-*-*_

_Leonart, now a young man, stared down at the dead bodies of the guards, somewhere in the dungeons of his mind, something cried for the families of those guards, who would never again see their loved ones, but that annoying thing was quickly silenced as Leonart entered the room that the corpses had been guarding before their untimely ends._

_He walked carefully to the Queen's bed, not making the slightest of sounds against the cold, stone floor; through the years of knowing the Cats, he had learned to walk so quietly that not even any of them could hear him, even if he was already behind them._

_Leonart stared down at the girl, when she took the throne, after her mother's "mysterious" death, Leonart had only been a year or two older than her, and she had already begun to reign the queendom with an iron fist and a bloody thirst. Her golden hair fanned out on the pillow, her skin was white as the moon outside and smoother than the belly of a jabberwocky._

_He could not wait to see her blood stain the pillow and his hands._

_He silently removed the dagger from its holster, the very dagger that Davith had bequeathed to him in his last dying breaths on the battlefield that day so long ago. He raised it above the evil Queen's neck, but before he could bring the dagger down, he was blinded; by the sudden opening of her eyes and the bright, sapphire eyes that stared up at him in surprise. The girl's hand immediately reached a button on the headboard behind her before he could move, and he could hear the pounding footsteps of other guards thumping down the hall to them._

_Leonart glared vehemently at the girl, who just smirked at him as the sapphires twinkled some message at him, the message was lost in translation, and before the guards could knock down the doors, he jumped out the window and into the moat below._

_The young Queen of Hearts gazed down at the water below, waiting to see if the handsome boy would return to the surface; he could hold his breath for a long time it seemed. The guards crashed through the doors and immediately began to search the room for any sign of a disturbance._

_"Your Majesty, what has happened?" the head of the guard asked the young queen._

_"There is a man, who has long black hair, dark gray eyes, and skin like mahogany; he tried to kill me." she replied, she smiled at the last part, and the guard was about to comfort her, but she continued speaking, "Find this man, and bring him back alive, for I have found my King of Hearts." She sighed dreamily as she landed on her bed, then she just as suddenly shot back up, "Well, get out, or, or, it'll be off with your heads!" she shouted, deciding to threaten them with what that assassin had threatened her._

_The guards quickly fled the room, and she curled up in her covers, dreaming of how handsome the man would look in proper, kingly dress._


	21. Help from a Butterfly

A/N: Haha, another update, damn, I'm on a roll; this is one of the chapters I wrote in school when I probably should have been studying for my math midterm, or the test I was going to have today in History, which I barely passed by the way, or numerous other things that were in all technicality, more important than writing for a fanfiction, but definitely not more fun.

Also, Jhinra was the only reviewer, because there was a short time allotment between this chapter and the last one, and also, _freaking_ Jhinra(you know I mean this in a good way :D), she accidentally gave me a freaking awesome idea for the story with something she said in her review, and so now, I totally have to write it. This story is going to going on for a while, I hope you all stick with me through it.

Ah, and so, an important character comes to light, he had a very small role over eight years ago(in this Wonderland) and he makes a new premiere with more importance than ever before, hope you enjoy it, even if it is amazingly short, sorry.

Warning: There is the subtle(not really) use of drugs mentioned in this chapter, I do not in anyway promote the use of any sort of frug, over the counter, prescription, or otherwise, to alleviate one's feelings. You should only do that with the power of love. :P

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

* * *

Alice sighed as she looked in the mirror; there was the armor behind her, made by the rebel forces for her, for when they finally went into battle. Flowers decorated the metal, just like the ones in her playrooms; she had learned that they were supposed to be a symbol of peace and innocence.

She shook her head and sat back down on the bed; she couldn't do this, she was just a twenty two year old woman, she didn't know how to govern people, or a country for that matter; she couldn't win a fight, much less a revolution.

Just as she was about to admit it aloud to herself, there was a knock, at her window; which she had never before seen there, as most underground places do not have windows. She went to the window and opened it anyway, as soon as it was opened, out tumbled a man and the window disappeared right from her hands.

The man merely continued to lie on the floor gazing lazily up at the dirt ceiling with sleepy black eyes. He suddenly moved until he was seated upright, shook his mop of black hair, and removed a strange device with a tube connected to it. He took a puff from the device and blew out the smoke, making little rings in the air.

"You're, you're, I know you, but I can't recall your name." Alice stated, just knowing she knew him, only not realizing where from or who he was.

"Lawrence Vanchre ... the Caterpillar." he took another puff and with a billow of smoke, he corrected himself, "Or ... I should say ... the Butterfly, now." and a pair of deep blue wings finally began to lethargically unfurl themselves from his back.

"Caterpillar." Alice said to herself, now recalling her first strange meeting with him, "Well, might I ask what you are doing here, or better yet, _what_ that window was?"

"A way in ... or maybe a way out." he mused aloud in answer, "And as for what I'm doing here, well, that's for you to tell me."

Alice's confusion was apparent on her face, "I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean."

"It's simple really." he began in a breath of smoke, "You, in moment of distress, sent out an alarm that you needed guidance; normally, this is something only Caterpillars do; alas, I was the only Caterpillar you ever new and thus I have been robbed from my own home to help you, of all people."

Alice still didn't quite get it, and now she started to feel guilty, but she nodded her head all the same, "So, you are to act as a counselor for me, at present?"

"I cannot leave until your distress is gone, now hurry up, I haven't got all day." he replied in answer, puffing furiously.

"Well, alright then." Alice sat down on the bed next to him, "Everyone expects me to be some great Queen of Hearts and put right everything that my mother did wrong. The thing is though, I'm not sure if I want to be a _princess_, much less a queen, and I doubt whether or not I'll be able to change anything, and don't even get me started on Cat. He accidentally sent me a letter, declaring his love for me, and then he took it back, saying that he's sorry if his feelings bothered me, and he decided to choose for me what my answer to his letter was. And nothing feels right, I hate it all." she finally finished her rant by landing her head in Lawrence's lap, which smelled strongly of whatever he smoked.

He patted her head and fell to stroking her hair, "Breathe." he instructed, placing a lightly smoking tube near her face. While she didn't breath it though her mouth like he did, she inhaled deeply, and suddenly felt very light, as though there was not a single weight on her shoulders or mind, "Now, think of your situation again." he told her, and she did.


	22. Mad Advice

A/N: Yes, I'm still alive, sorry, I've just been busy/lazy :P. Right now my brain is pretty dead, we're doing state testing right now, it lasts until Friday, which is when I leave on a band trip to Six Flags, this will be my first time ever at Six Flags. I've actually written two chapters in a notebook of mine from school, I've just been lazy about moving them to my computer, don't I'll get them there sooner or later.

Anyway, to the reviewers/favoriters/alerters: VeryWithdrawn and emROARS for favoriting, and James Birdsong for reviewing, I love you guys, you're awesomes!

Ok, first off, I was originally going to publish this at some other time, but I got distracted, also the chapter I finished when I was originally going to publish this, has got to be one of the most _badass_ chapters ever, like seriously; it's not that there's some epic battle or anything, but it _completely_ changes whatever you might have been thinking of this plot before. I just needed to say, so prepare yourselves, for in six chapters, your little heads will be turned upside down and you just might be screaming bloody mary.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

* * *

Alice lifted her head, feeling rather woozy and begining to wonder just what it was that Lawrence always smoked. She looked around for the lazy man with heavy eyes, and found neither hair nor wing of him.

She struggled to move her lethargic limbs, but finally made it to a more proper upright position. She shook her head, only making it feel worse, but it still helped to clear it. Then she remembered everything that had happened in her talk with Lawrence.

Alice looked over at the door, and suddenly she heard pounding on it. She wondered when that began, as she hadn't even heard anything earlier. She slowly got up off her bed to open the door, but it was rammed down before she could move further.

Cat stood behid the knocked down door and they were only able to stare at each other for but a moment before Cat was pushed aside by Hatter, Hare, the rebel leader, Mathis, Amarissa, Samarissa, and a few others.

"Alice, what were you thinking? We were so worried when you didn't come to dinner, and then we come here and Cat was ramming himself into your door." Hatter went on with his rant, but Alice was searching for Cat, only to find him leaving with Hare.

~Infirmary~

Hare made Cat remove his shirt, so the younger man could see the damage. What damage it was, there had already been quite some blood on the shirt, but now Hare could see the nasty gash on the arm before him. The skin had turned several shades darker than what was around it, and Hare was positive that the shoulder was dislocated if not broken.

"How in Wonderland can you _stand_ that?" Hare asked as he continued his medical investigation; he received only a shrug in answer. Hare merely sighed as he began to run softly glowing, blue hands over Cat's dark skin.

Surprisingly, Cat made neither sound nor movement; although Hare knew, for a matter of fact, the absolute pain he must be in. This healing process often killed more people than it saved; which was why few people knew of his unfortunate talent.

Hare finally broke the silence between them, with the wrong thing to say, "You must really love Alice to do all this for her." he felt the muscles beneath his fingers tighten until they could no more. "Touchy subject?" he asked timidly, he received a growl in response.

They were silent a while longer, until Cat broke it, "I'm sorry." he said, Hare only nodded, "I'm just trying to do the right thing."

"And you think avoiding Alice is the right thing to do." Hare stated.

"Well, it's better than to try and be with her."

"And why would that be?"

"Because, if she were with me, than she would always be sad, and who would accept our relationship, I mean, I'm born from an entire race of slaves, we were slaves where we came from, and we were slaves when we got here, she should love someone she can have a _normal_ life with, and that is not me."

"She's the icon for a revolution against her _mother_, her father _started_ the revolution against his wife's family, and she's going to become Queen of Hearts after _killing_ her own mother for the throne; it's not likely she's ever going to have a normal life."

"She wouldn't be able to have children with me, she would feel awful because her children might kill her husband's family; I mean, can you even imagine how Calico feels, she's the only one of us having children and she already killed Tabby and almost killed me?"

"No, I can't imagine, but can you even _consider_ how Alice feels about this, I mean, she _loves_ you, and if she loves you half as much as I think she does, then she won't care about never having children with you; go talk with Hatter more about this, he knows what you're going through." Hare lifted his hands from Cat's shoulder, which was by now fully healed, and he walked out of the infirmary.

Cat lied back on the infirmary bed and covered his eyes with his hands, until he felt the presence of Hatter next to his bed, then he removed his hands and glared at the older man.

"Hare told me to come talk with you about how you're stupid." Hatter explained, lying on the bed next to Cat, and then frowning, "Wow, these beds are crappy." Cat continued to glare, "Alright, let's just wrap this up nice and quick, right?" Hatter suggested, sitting upright, "Obviously, you know Hare and I are in a relationship, have been for a long time. I've known him since he was twelve, and was in love with him since he was thirteen, do you realize how _hard_ it is to hold yourself back from telling the person you love, who you see every day, and even sleeps in your bed with you most nights, that you love them?"

Hatter sighed and shook his head, "It's even worse when you know how complicated it would be for that person, you think you're doing the right thing, by not telling them what you feel. You think they'll go off and live a normal life, get married, have kids, ask you to be a godfather, and you'll be so tempted to say no, but of course you'll say fine and do it. You think that so long as you don't tell them, everything will stay the same, but that's the thing, sometimes it doesn't matter, it all changes anyway."

"It sounds like you've been through this more than once." Cat said, finally speaking.

"Hm, yeah, I was in love with my governess when I was thirteen, she got married, and amazingly, she _did_ ask me to be her kid's godfather, but I had to decline, a Time can never be godfather for anyone." Hatter replied, a hand fleeing to some pocket of his coat, where his thumb rubbed against a perfectly smooth Pocketwatch that he knew had stopped ticking for eight years. "The point is, it's better to have tried and failed, then to have been a coward all along, sure they could reject you, but that's love, it's giving someone the power to crush you in ways you never thought possible." then he got up from the bed and with an easy wave of his hand, he left the infirmary.

Cat flopped down in the infirmary bed and decided to sleep on it.

* * *

A/N: Yes, Cat _did_ just get love advice from both the _March Hare_ and the _**Mad** Hatter_, he was pretty desperate.


	23. A Brilliantly Stupid Plan

A/N: Haha, it's 12:00 AM right now, I really need to get to sleep, so I'm gonna keep it short and sweet.

Thanks to emROARS for favoriting my story, James Birdsong for reviewing, Jhinra for also reviewing, Gifted for favoriting, and RosePetal-Luminescence-Mel-Bel for alerting the story, and because of her review, I decided to get of my lazy a$$ and update for once.

Hope everyone's end of the school year timeish things go well, I have to take finals in like two weeks D: wish me luck, in two weeks.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to mention, the poem is by Lewis Caroll, author of the original Alice in Wonderland series, I do not claim it as my own.

* * *

Lawrence was again seated on Alice's bed, smoking away, while Alice paced, the Butterfly sighed heavily and said, "Calm down ... do you need ... to breathe this again ... because I really ... suggest ... you don't." he gestured to his tube as he said this and Alice shook her head.

"No, what is that anyway?"

Lawrence breathed deeply from his tube and began to recite some poetry it sounded like:

"_How doth the little crocodile _

_Improve his shining tail, _

_And pour the waters of the Nile _

_On every golden scale! _

_How cheerfully he seems to grin! _

_How neatly spread his claws, _

_And welcomes little fishes in _

_With gently smiling jaws!_"

He breathed deeply yet again, as though talking with no pauses was a hindrance to his smoking; Alice raised a slender brow, a bit confused by this poem.

"It's made ... with the golden scales ... from the tail ... of a crocodile ... living in ... the Nile." he breathed deeply and smiled a bit, "It's expensive stuff." then he added, "Only ... Caterpillars and Butterflies ... can have this ... sort of thing ... humans react ... too strongly to it ... for their own good ... we rarely ... if ever ... give them some."

"Oh." was Alice's reply, and then she lay on the bed next to Lawrence, and pushed her face into the pillow, which made Lawrence roll his eyes.

"You're so ... dramatic." he said, smoke billowing out in a long stream, Alice glared at the Butterfly, "Why ... am I ... even here?"

"I don't know, I'm just feeling overly stressed out again." Alice replied, she screamed into the pillow, "I hate this!"

"What is it ... you hate?"

"I don't even know, I mean, I know what I should do, but, it's still nerve wracking and I'm panicking, I mean-" Alice suddenly stopped, it appeared Lawrence had fallen asleep, "Butterfly, you're not helping me!" and she moved to shake him, but he grabbed her hand before it could move, with his eyes still closed.

"I'm not sleeping ... can't a man ... just ... rest his eyes?" and he breathed in the smoke deeply, he really did love smoking.

"But, Butterfly, is what I saw, really what must happen?"

Lawrence raised a slim brow, "I don't know ... what you saw ... you have ... to figure that ... on your own."

Alice just nodded her head, having figured that answer already; she lifted her head quickly as Lawrence put away his smoke and moved to the wall, where there was yet again, the strange window that he came in and out of, "You're leaving?"

"Yes ... I've helped you ... all I can ... the rest ... is up to ... you." he answered as he exited backwards through the slowly disappearing window, and once he closed it, the window merely vanished.

Alice sat on her bed, sighed deeply, thought of what she saw the day before, and glanced over at the armor that stood in the corner, waiting the revolution day that had been long postponed.

"What?"

Mathis, and everyone in the conference room, looked at Alice as though she had just decided that they should go into the den of a jabberwocky, which actually was what she had just suggested.

"Alice, you cannot be serious, no one who's ever even _tried_ to go up against a jabberwocky has come back alive, there is no way we can survive going into the _den_ of one, and besides, travel to the Volcanic Plains would take too long, it would put back the revolution longer than it already has been."

"Then I'll go alone, I know a way to get there quickly, in less than a day I can reach the Plains." Alice argued, hoping they would just let her go soon.

"No!" Mathis retaliated, "That's madder than even the Hatter, we cannot let _you_ especially, go off into a jabberwocky's den _alone_."

"You don't understand, we _need_ a jabberwocky."

"And we _need_ to stay alive, no debate, there will be no jabberwocky-den-hopping." Mathis said in a final voice.

Alice was silent for only a moment before she said, "I saw it." everyone only looked confused, "Lawrence Vanchre, the Butterfly, gave me the ability to think clearly of our situation, instead I saw something that was not a thought, it was a memory that had yet to happen." here everyone let out some surprised murmuring, "I saw, the revolution going into battle against the Queen's forces, with a jabberwocky leading us."

Everyone went completely silent, and then there was eruption of noise, it was debate, whether or not a Princess of Hearts' vision was guarantee enough that it would be safe to send her into the den of a jabberwocky. Mathis stood, and he looked at Alice with a hard look, before nodding, "Alright, you can go into the jabberwocky's den." there were a few indignant shouts, but Mathis silenced them with a raise of his hand, "But, you must take Cat with you, for safety." Cat looked like he was about to hiss at the rebel leader, but everyone else merely nodded in agreement.

Alice nodded as well, "We need to leave tomorrow." and with those words, she left the conference room.


	24. To the Jabberwocky

A/N: Today is a beautiful day, it was my last day of school, I am officially in summer now, with no idea of what my vacation plans are, and tomorrow I have to sit through my sister's four hour graduation ceremony tomorrow, thank gosh I can take iPod, I might even try to sneak in my DS and play on that during the wait.

And to the thankings of all you wonderful people who have reviewed/favorited/alerted since my last update: RosePetal-Luminescence-Mel-Bel for being a repeat reviewer, woolSmynx a newbie reviewer, Jhinra, of course, for always reviewing, and finally, MADHATTERXALICE2010 for favoriting my story; all of these people be full of awesomes.

Anyway, now that summer is here and I no longer have to work on last minute projects from 5 PM until 11PM(happened just the other night, yes I have some twisted teachers), I can dutifully(or try to) write this story and dedicate my time to it(if I don't get too distracted). You can expect more consistent updates from now on(don't hold your breath on that). For now my dears, au revoir, until my next update.

* * *

Alice and Cat were walking in an awkward silence about the Volcanic Plains, they had already gone through her playroom, where Cat was a bit surprised to learn she could navigate it, and had arrived to their destination, where they now just walked about, looking for a cave where a jabberwocky might live.

They had to breathe heavily through the masks covering their faces from the constant sand of the Plains, and the heat had been unbearable since they arrived; Alice hoped they found the Jabberwocky's den soon.

"How?"

Alice turned to Cat, a bit surprised that he had finally spoken to her, after so long of just ignoring the Princess, and asked in reply, "How what?"

"How do you expect us to catch a jabberwocky, when we know not its location, nor do we have any method of catching it with?"

Alice looked away, and was quiet for a bit, "Maybe we could just ask it?" she suggested, Cat just scoffed at the suggestion and Alice frowned, "Well, do _you _have any _bright_ ideas?"

"I'm not the one who said we _needed_ a jabberwocky and saw a vision where one fought on our side." Cat replied.

Alice grumbled, "It wasn't one."

"What?"

"I said I didn't see _just_ one jabberwocky."

Cat looked at her in surprise as she caught up with him and began to walk past him; he then effortlessly caught back up to her, "What do you mean?"

"In the vision I saw, there was a jabberwocky leading us into battle, spread out in the forces though, were dozens of them, maybe even hundreds."

"Please tell me we do not have to go to every jabberwocky in the Volcanic Plains to acquire this army."

"No." Alice answered, "Only the one that was leading us, I'm sure he's the leader of them."

"Leader?" Cat asked, "Alice, jabberwockies are solitary, not even the females travel in groups, all of them stay alone."

"But I know what I saw, and we need to find the leader of the jabberwockies, to strike a deal with him."

"How do you know this?"

"I don't know, it's just there in my head, the idea that we have to strike a deal."

Cat shook his head and continued to follow the blonde over the rocky terrain; they walked for what felt to be hours, before arriving at a cave.

"I think, this is it." Alice said as they stared at the cave, outside the cave was a mountain of human and animal bones, they spilled out of the cave much the same way beans spill out of an overturned pot. One could feel the eeriness of the cave seep through their bones, and just looking at it, you could tell that under no normal circumstance should you ever enter that cave.

"We have to go into _that_?"

"Yes." Alice replied simply.

Cat shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Well, we're already here, may as well go in."

The two approached the cave, where not the slightest sound was being made, save for their footsteps on the ground, Alice was about to go into the cave when Cat suddenly held her back, glaring into the cave.

Alice looked back at Cat, wondering why he had just done that, but then there was something of a growl from the cave, and they could see faint movement within the cave, once the movement settled, yellow eyes stared back at them, and a slithery head went out to meet them. Cat moved Alice behind him, pulling out a dagger, essentially useless against a jabberwocky, but better than nothing. Alice pushed her way out from behind Cat and towards the jabberwocky, where she stood confidently in front of him, and suddenly curtsied.

"We are sorry for having disturbed you, o great Jabberwocky King, I am Alice, Princess of Hearts, and this is the Cheshire Cat, we came with the hopes that you might help us." Alice announced, hoping her plan would work.

The jabberwocky stared at her curiously, "Very well, since you are such a smart little human, as to know _who_ I am, I suppose I shall let you speak." he said in a deep, velvet voice; a black clawed hand came out from somewhere in the darkness and he propped his head against it as he stared back at Alice with ugly yellow eyes.

"Jabberwocky King, we wish for you to help us in a revolution." Alice stated.

"The revolution against your mother?" he asked, to which Alice nodded, "How horrible, not even _our_ young rebel against their parents so, nor do we eat our young like your sort is so stupid as to claim us to."

"I am sorry for this unjust characterization of your kind, Jabberwocky King, but you must understand, my mother is not a just Queen, she beheads her subjects for frivolous things and spares no one her wrath."

"And what does that have to do with me, I am a jabberwocky, if your kind are all gone thanks to your mother, than she is a help to us, sparing us of the foolish knights that try to slay us; truthfully, we hate the taste of humans, your bodies are too polluted from the cities you live in."

Alice considered this for a moment and then went on, "But, great Jabberwocky King, my mother is so horrible a woman, that she may come here herself to slay _you_, the mere mention of her scares the bandersnatch of the Tulgey Woods, she herself has hunted them near to extinction."

The Jabberwocky King seemed to think this over, "Hm, yes, the Bandersnatch King _has _warned me of a homicidal blond woman with sapphire eyes and a blade stained with blood that has been killing his kin."

"That would be my mother, and you, of course, my great sir, must know it is no simple task, to kill the frumious bandersnatch."

He looked down at Alice, and then disappeared into his cave, Alice worried she had offended him in some way, but he reemerged a moment later with some little necklace in tow. "Here." he said, tossing it to Alice, she caught it and look at the necklace, it had several precious gems made into it and a single shining scale was the centerpiece, "Wear it, it will tell the other jabberwockies that you are my friend and trying to kill you or your companions is a grave offense. Now I, the Jabberwocky King, have promised upon my life that all we jabberwockies will swear to you our allegiance, if you agree that no human or otherwise, will try to kill one of us ever again."

"I, Princess Alice Mary Elizabeth Heart, promise upon my life, that no human or otherwise will try to kill you or any of your kin ever again, so long as the jabberwockies keep their allegiance."

The jabberwocky nodded his head, and then with a black claw he tapped lightly on the necklace that Alice wore, "When you need us, just call me through that scale, and we will come." with those words he slithered back into his cave and Alice let out a sigh of relief.

Cat grabbed Alice and began to take her away from the cave as he finally put away the dagger he had held tightly onto the entire duration of the conversation between human princess and the Jabberwocky King.

Alice looked over at Cat, he had a bit of stubble on his chin, there were bags developed under his eyes, in short, he was older; she wondered why she hadn't really noticed it until now, he must have been nearly as tall as Hatter by now.

When Alice looked around again, they were already in one of her playrooms, so she went over to the flowers and was about to speak to them, and then Cat said something that stopped her.

"Why do you love me?"


	25. A Real Confession

A/N: Haha, this note is probably longer than the chapter, which is why I will thank reviewers/favoriters/alerters, in the chapter that follows this one since I'm doing a double update.

Be sure to read the note at the end, please.

RER Read, Enjoy, Review!

* * *

"What?" Alice asked, staring at Cat with obvious befuddlement.

Cat sighed and turned his back towards her, it might have been a trick of the light, but Alice could have sworn she saw him go a bit red before he turned, "Why is it, that you love me?" he asked again, "There is no reason for you to love me, you can not even properly recall me."

"No, but I do feel as though I have known you for a very long time, and I trust what I feel." she replied, Cat instead sighed as his tail flicked at the water on the small pond; he had many things that he could say in response to that, but he decided to say nothing in response. "I know I can trust what I feel, how else would I have listened to what you told me when we first met?"

He was now just gazing down at the water of the lake, which fell up the waterfall and into some unknown stream.

"You're kind." Alice said, crouched over by the flowers, who were not singing, but had instead up rooted themselves to play with Alice's hair; she wondered if they had always been able to do that or if they only recently figured out how, Cat now looked over at her, but she wasn't staring at him, "You're always trying to do the right thing the way you think it will help, and even if it doesn't, you at least stand by your decision no matter the consequence." He looked away, starting to feel a little guilty about how he'd treated her for the past few days, as though his talk with Hare and Hatter hadn't already made him feel bad enough.

He sighed, looked over at the waterfall in contemplation of something, and then walked over to Alice, where he sat next to her; at his arrival, the flowers all scattered back to their original place, but didn't sing, they merely pretended to not pay attention, "Sorry." he said to Alice.

The blonde turned to look at him and asked, "What for?" she wondered what else he might be sorry for, being her friend perhaps?

"Disappointing what you like in me." and he kissed her.

* * *

A/N: Because I know at least _one_ person will be confused by that last line, Alice liked that Cat stuck to what he chose, and he chose _not_ to love her, and Cat says he's disappointing her, because he's not sticking to his choice and _is_ loving her. Get it? If you don't, then just PM me to explain it in detail to you.


	26. The Tulgey Wood

A/N: Yay, you got a double update, no, I have not finished the chapter I was supposed to be working on, I was unfortunately distracted by attempting to write one-shots(which were pretty badass if I must say so myself, but are not fan-fiction and therefore, chances are, none of you will ever see them) and enrolling in driver's ed classes(at long _freaking_ last) and there was some recent(as in today) depression over how stupid a state Texas is; it is apparently illegal for a minor to get a tattoo in the state of Texas, never mind that I know at _least_ four or five different classmates with tattoos, one of whom got hers in the _eighth_ grade, and Ohio(where I lived for ten years and still see as my home state) is indeed the most awesomest state ever, as it is the _only_ state where a sixteen year old may _legally_ get a tattoo in a tattoo parlour with parental permission, and I happen to be going there in August, so I can still participate in the family tattoo that everyone else(my parents, brother, & sister) will be getting here in dumb old Texas.

Anyway, enough of my ranting, to thanking all of you wonderful people who have favorited/reviewed/alerted since I last updated this story: Jhinra for reviewing, of course, she is _still_ awesome, as always; James Birdsong, the man has a way with using so few words in his reviews that still have such _great_ impact; and finally, RosePetal-Luminescence-Mel-Bel, for reviewing, because she's cool like that. They are the only people to thank this time around, and now, for once, I will actually get to work on this story, and with any hope, I will _finally_ finish that chapter(probably not happening any time soon, at least I'm honest about it).

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!(and I'll give you a cookie :D)

* * *

Alice and Cat returned to the headquarters to find they had been gone for all of a few hours, which rather surprised everyone, as they were sure that they were going to die out in the Volcanic Plains, going into a jabberwocky's den. The two of them were immediately rushed off to the conference room, where all the important figureheads of the revolution sat eagerly awaiting the outcome of the dangerously foolish mission that their princess had been so adamant about going on.

"Well, how did your plan go?" Mathis asked Alice as she and Cat both took their seats.

Alice merely stood elegantly from her seat and placed a hand to her necklace, "The Jabberwocky King has promised the jabberwockies' allegiance so long as no one tries to kill them anymore." there were a few murmurs, although it was a dangerous thing to go about killing a Jabberwocky, the few that were killed were essential for economical purposes. "I swore on my life that I would fulfill my end of the deal, and so all killing of any jabberwockies is from here on banned." Alice told them in a final voice, then she added, "The Jabberwocky King also mentioned that the bandersnatch fear my mother, we might be able to forge an alliance with the Bandersnatch King and he might help us. Cat and I will go to see him in the Tulgey Wood tomorrow." the men nodded their heads, seeing the sense in what she proposed, although they were still nervous. The bandersnatch were considerably less dangerous compared to the jabberwockies, but compared to most anything else, they were dangerous creatures not to be messed with.

The meeting soon after ended and Cat walked with Alice back to her room, their hands brushed as they walked, and Cat tentatively pulled her hand into his grip, squeezing it a bit, and she squeezed his right back. When they arrived at her room, Cat looked down the hall quickly, before giving her a quick peck and walking off, leaving a happily smiling Alice to await tomorrow and their trip to the Tulgey Wood.

Cat kept an eye on Alice behind him as he cut down the heavy foliage in front; the Tulgey Wood was infamous for its heavy foliage and tall, tall trees, and for the sheer amount of people that would die in it; the wood was too confusing to make a proper map of, and the only way the two of them would make it back to the base would be through Cat's lucky ability to transport to the playrooms.

"What does a bandersnatch even look like?" Cat asked Alice, having never before seen one, not even in any sort of textbook.

"I have no idea." Alice answered, not knowing herself.

Cat stopped hacking away at the foliage and turned to glare at this girl he loved, "We're looking for something that we don't even know what it looks like?" he shook his head and muttered something under his breath, making Alice roll her own eyes at him.

They walked and walked and walked, finding nothing that might be a bandersnatch, not that they had much of a description to go by anyway; they knew three things about the bandersnatch, they are extremely quick, have an extendable neck, and tend to be frumious, whether that was a permanent state or if there were bandersnatch that were not so, no one knew.

They finally decided to take a break from their walking and rested against a tree, Cat was forced to lay his head down on Alice's lap, since he wanted to keep watch in case if something should try to attack them, but Alice wanted him to actually rest a bit.

Cat still kept alert in case if something wicked should come their way, but all remained silent, that set Cat's nerves on edge.

He suddenly jumped up, dagger at the ready and Alice was very surprised at his sudden movement. He struck out his dagger and instead his arm was cut, blood dripping to the ground, but he ignored the injury, trying to find where his opponent would strike next from or where to protect.

Alice stood slowly, the necklace from the Jabberwocky King glinting in the sunlight as she did, and suddenly, right in front of her was a strange looking creature, staring right at her.

It was some sort of bird, with a long neck that upheld a fairly large head; large wide eyes stared Alice in the eyes with huge black pupils, it ruffled its feathers, a bright, vibrant orange color with black spots about. What scared Alice the most of this creature, was the long serrated beak, it opened a little and then closed, just enough that Alice could see the numerous rows of sharp teeth glinting at her.

Cat tried to attack it from behind, but the creature quickly turned its head and blocked the attack before turning back to Alice, "You should not be here." it told her in what was easily a female voice.

"I need to speak with your King." Alice replied, curtsying to the bandersnatch.

"You should not be here." she said again, "We are having a funeral today, the King's only son was killed in one of the sieges."

"Oh my." Alice put a hand to her mouth, "Can you please, take us there; I would like to give my condolences."

The bandersnatch looked at Alice for a while before glancing over at Cat, "He has to put that away and cannot attack anyone." Alice nodded and glared at Cat until he did so, then the bandersnatch walked and led them through heavy foliage and dense trees; they almost lost their way a few times, but were able to find the bandersnatch again and soon found themselves in a small clearing.

The clearing was full of bandersnatch with heads down, a few crying, and many seeming to be injured, in the middle of the rather small group was a rather old, but grand, bandersnatch who stood over a small patch of the ground, covered by some large mass with sticks, leaves, and flowers of all sorts. Cat moved to approach this scene, but Alice held onto his arm, stopping him from moving, the bandersnatch that had led them there nodded her head approvingly at her; this was not the sort of scene that one should easily disturb. None of the other bandersnatch had noticed the two nonbandersnatch that had joined them, too focused on mourning to take note.

The Bandersnatch King finally raised his head, glancing around at his subjects before stretching his neck as high as it possibly could and letting out a mournful cry, everyone else began to join in the dismal song. It took Alice a few seconds to realize that her vision was blurring because she was crying, she did not bother to wipe the tears away, instead she held tightly onto Cat's hand, who squeezed back and instead brought her head close to his chest, where her tears made his shirt wet.

The dirge ended slowly, and the King looked at some bandersnatch close to him, who nodded and went towards the mass in the middle, where they scratched their nails together a few times before a spark set the mass aflame. A few forlorn cries were let loose by the friends and family of the ones that had died, and for the many others whose bodies had already been gone.

The bandersnatch began to turn to leave the sad place, but they instead noticed Alice and Cat, many were letting out indignant squawks, and the bandersnatch that had led them there attempted to protect Alice and Cat from the attackers, for whatever reason, they seemed very hesitant about trying to attack her. The Bandersnatch King approached the commotion and when he saw what it was about, he glared at the bandersnatch that had been protecting them.

"And tell me, Daughter, for what reason did you bring these murderers here?" he asked in an old, rough voice, not at all smooth and melodious like the Jabberwocky King's, but still commanding attention.

She glared at him, "They wanted to speak with you, Father." she replied, and growled when another tried to snap at Cat, who, as he had promised, did not take out a weapon, but instead kept Alice close between himself and the Bandersnatch King's daughter.

He glared at her and then at Alice and Cat, "I refuse to speak with these people." he replied and turned to leave.

Before the King's daughter could say anything to him, Alice said, "I understand, Bandersnatch King, I was going to ask you to help us fight against my mother, but after seeing what condition you are in, I dare not ask such a thing of you and your kind, my companion and I will leave immediately, we are sorry to have intruded on this event." and she turned to drag Cat away from the clearing.

The King stopped them, "So you are the Queen of Heart's daughter that got even that proud thing of a Jabberwocky King to help you." he stated, still glaring, "I am appalled that a child is so rebellious against their own parent, but I cannot disagree too greatly with you, knowing what your mother has done to us. I am sorry that we cannot help you, our numbers have dwindled too much already." and he turned to walk away, most of his subjects following after him, his daughter stayed behind.

"My father is old fashioned and a coward." she told Alice and Cat with venom in her voice, "You need not pay him any mind, with what of us that are willing to fight, I will come to help you, here," she plucked a feather from her wing and gave it to Alice, "with that, you will be able to call me when the battle is to be held, until then, do not use it." and she ran off to join the others who had long since left the clearing.

"Well, we have two of the most dangerous creatures in all of Wonderland working with us against your mother in the revolution." Cat said as they merely stood in the clearing.

"We have the definite help of one dangerous creature, and the maybe help of another, and even then, did you not see how few there were, I doubt there'll be many willing to help us out." Alice replied, then was quiet as they transported to her playroom.

"At least we have what help we have." Cat said, as Alice told the flowers their destination, and they left the trees to find themselves in the back alley of _Jack's Tarts_ and entered into the kitchen which led them back down to the underground headquarters. They made their way to the conference room where everyone as discussing how to utilize the new jabberwocky forces in battle.

"Well, do we the bandersnatch with us?" Mathis asked the two of them.

"Maybe." Alice answered.

"What do you mean?"

"The King himself did not give us his support, as their numbers are very small from my mother's sieges, they lost even the King's son in a recent siege, and there must be less than a hundred left." Alice explained, Mathis frowned a bit at this, "But the King's daughter has promised that she will attempt to get some of her father's subjects to help us, although I do not trust that she will be able to get many."

Mathis's frown deepened, but he nodded his head nonetheless, "Very well, at the least, we have the jabberwockies to help us."

Alice nodded her head, and gave Cat's hand a sneaky squeeze before exiting the meeting room and heading to her bedroom, where she worried of the battle to come.


	27. An Unwanted Arrangement

A/N: I'm sorry, I've been rather preoccupied since I last updated (read as _being lazy_) I've been taking driver's ed for the past three weeks and today I'm taking my final exam, wish me luck on that. Also, I live in south Texas, Alex came for a visit just two weeks ago, we're still experiencing a _lot_ of flooding, the Rio Grande is finally living up to its name right now, because it is freaking _huge_ right now, a lot of the places where my family live across the border the water has already gotten there. So yeah, the water's messing up some plans for me, like I can't get my tattoo or dye my hair purple yet because of all the shooting and flooding over there, it's too dangerous for us all to try and go over. I've also been trying to finish my summer reading, I still need to finish reading _Tooth and Nail_, start on _Le Petit Prince_, and I need to print out some stuff I need to read for my AP US history class this year. Also, I basically have no vacation, the past three weeks I had driver's ed from 9-11 AM, and on Monday, band practice starts up, from 8-12 and then 1-4, I know, I have no life, and it will last until like, a week before school starts; I'm just not lucky. T.T

Anyway, enough of my complaining, let's get to thanking everyone who has, favorited/reviewed/alerted: Magic After Midnight, for reviewing, and bringing to my attention that I am in need of a BETA, if anyone wants to help me out with that, just PM me; James Birdsong, as always, a man of few and powerful words; RosePetal-Luminescence-Mel-Bel, for reviewing as she always does, I do love repeat reviewers :D ; and lets us not forget the always present reviewer, Jhinra.

Again, if anyone wants to help me out by being a BETA, or pointing me in the direction of a good one, that would be greatly appreciated and you will be thanked hugely, thank you.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

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Alice breathed deeply, trying to calm herself, and Lawrence breathed deeply too, before frowning at the blonde who seemed she would start hyperventilating at any minute.

"Please ... calm down ... and stop pressing ... the panic button ... all the time." He complained at her, "Didn't you do ... everything already?"

"Yes, Cat and I have a relationship now, it's secret to everyone but Hare and Hatter, but that's beside the point, and we have an alliance with the jabberwockies, and we _might_ have the help of a few bandersnatch, but I feel like something very bad is going to happen today, and I just can't shake the feeling off." Alice replied, flopping face first into her pillow and screaming, she felt more and more like a teenager, instead of a young queen-to-be, every day.

Lawrence merely smoked quietly, when Alice glanced over at him she got the feeling that he knew something he wasn't telling her, but there was a knock at her door and the older, but still young looking, man quickly crawled underneath her bed; for a person who usually made sloths look like speed wagons, he moved nearly as quick as a bandersnatch to hide under her bed.

Alice ignored his strange behavior and answered the door, where stood Cat, "Come on, we have to go to the meeting room." he told her, her merely grabbed her arm and closed her door before rushing her down the hall. Alice could easily tell he was upset about something, and he must have been very upset by whatever it was, as whoever they passed by stopped to look at Cat strangely, he normally never aroused suspicion of his feelings in anyone, whether it was a feeling of joy, sadness, or anger. They even passed by Black and White; White looked at her younger brother sadly with blind eyes and Black raised a single brow, obviously wondering what his little brother was so upset about. Even Tom, who normally could never read even the most open of books, looked a bit perturbed by his brother's obvious anger.

They arrived at the conference room soon after, by that time Cat had been able to school his face back into an emotionless facade. They entered the room to find Mathis and most of the other important men conversing with a particular man, he was tall, with strong, handsome features, curly brown hair, and dark blue eyes; she wondered what he was doing here.

"Ah, Alice, you finally came." Mathis said, pushing the girl over towards the stranger.

She easily curtsied to him, just to be polite; he instead grabbed her hand, bowed, and kissed it, as he did so he said, "It is a pleasure to meet so beautiful a woman." The action and phrase suddenly reminded Alice of Mr. Galler, and she dearly hoped this wasn't what she already thought it was.

"This is Dack Spade, of the nearby Gabbory kingdom." Mathis said, finally introducing the man, and Alice knew for certain what this was, they wanted her to marry this man.

Alice nodded her head, deciding not to say anything so that she might instead try to think of a way to get out of being with this man that she knew nothing about and whom she could never love if they did unfortunately get married.

"So, if you might show him around the headquarters?' Mathis suggested, communicating with his brows and eyes that she should charm the man.

Alice hadn't yet quite developed an idea for getting out of being alone with Dack yet, and so she said the first thing that came to her mind, "As much as I would love to, I actually have some business to attend to, you see, White and Black asked me to speak with them in private, so I really must be going now, I hope you enjoy yourself here, Mr. Spade." Alice replied, curtsying to Dack, and ignoring the glare that Mathis gave her.

When she went out of the room, Cat was waiting for her, "When did my siblings ask to meet with you?"

"They didn't." Alice quietly answered, "I just don't want them thinking I actually want to be with that man." Cat seemed to grit his teeth at the mere mention of him, Alice would have never before pegged him to be the jealous sort, "But there _is_ someone I need to have a private conversation with." Cat rose a brow at this, silently asking who it was, "I cannot tell you who they are, but there is nothing to worry about, they are far too old for me, and besides, I have you." she gave him a quick peck on the lips before dashing away from him and going something of a roundabout way to her room.

Lawrence was again lying on her bed, idly smoking away, "Ah ... so I propose ... you met that ... Spade fellow."

Alice glared at the older man, "You _knew_ he was here?"

"Yes ... but you ... had to ... meet him."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked the vicious glare from just a moment ago began to lessen.

"If you ... didn't meet him ... then my ... being here ... would not have ... happened." he explained between breaths, Alice was still confused, so he went further, "I came because ... you were panicking ... but you ... didn't know why ... if you ... didn't find out why ... I wouldn't ... be able ... to go ... back home."

"Oh." Alice replied, and then she suddenly asked, "Did my mother ever have to call on a Caterpillar?"

"Of course ... she did ... a lot really ... she always called ... for me." Lawrence answered, rather surprising Alice, as she hadn't thought he was _that_ old, "Caterpillars ... age very ... differently, if you ... hadn't noticed already." he explained, "She wasn't always ... evil ... it's just ... in the Heart line ... you must ... be cruel ... or die."

Alice contemplated this, "Was she ever arranged to marry someone, before my father?"

"Certainly ... but she ... drove them off ... with a stick. She actually ... chose your father ... _because_ he didn't ... like her ... he even tried ... to kill her ... when she first ... met him ... she was always ... a bit strange." Alice focused less on the second half of what she was told and more on the first.

"How did she drive them off?"

He glanced at her before replying, "In no way ... that will ... work for you."

She hung her head, "Then how do I get Spade to go away and stay with Cat?"

He merely looked down at his smoke, then glanced at Alice, she read the question and only shook her head at it, "Well ... you could always ... just go ahead ... and tell everyone."

"But, I don't know if Cat will be ok with that."

"Only ... one way ... to find out ... right?" Lawrence replied as Alice was silent for a long while, before finally nodding her head, and he left through the disappearing window that had no earthly reason being there.


	28. The Queen is Strange?

A/N: Yes, believe it or not, I _am_ still alive; sorry, I meant to update a few weeks back, before I left on my weeklong vacation to Columbus for my sister's college orientation, I got my tattoo, which is totally _badass_ by the way (even though it hurt like a _mother_). I've _actually_ been kind of busy since I got back, I've had band practice, even though this has been my last week of summer, that's right, I start school on Monday, how horrible, no? I've also been meaning to finish my summer reading for the French four class I'm taking, but I've been lazy about it, especially since I've readdicted myself to _Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility_, if you've never played a _Harvest Moon_ game before, tha you have no idea how surprisingly addicting it is to water crops and take care of livestock and everything else you do in a _Harvest Moon_ game. Also, I am _never _going to have children; there are four children, under the age of ten, behind me right now, playing MarioKart, all talking in Spanish, and dear lord, why do they _never shut up_(these are my cousins people)! So yes, that was all mainly a complicated way of saying, I've been lazy and I _still_ haven't finished the chapter that I've been "working" on for the past few months, I know that I'm horrible, but oh well, unfortuantely, life gives you writers like me who are sadly, overly, lazy procastinators, I'm terribly sorry for my vices T.T I wish I wasn't this way too.

Now, for the regular thanking of all the people who reviewed/favorited/alerted, and those people are Jhinra, for being the ever diligent reviewer, and no one else did anything, but I have to give Jhinra a special round of appluase, even if no one else does anything, I can _always_ count on her to review, and she's been with me since the beginning. Thank you for being the _AWESOME_ person that you are Jhinra, I love you for being a great reviewer!

Read, Enjoy, Review!

Virtual cookies for anyone who can answer this, O-H-?

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Alice had yet to have a chance to speak with Cat, always trying to evade being alone with Dack Spade and now she had greater things to worry about, like the new arrivals from Fairchess, a country very close by to Chessleman, and where the royalty was actually related to the White family of Chessleman. Apparently, they wanted to lend some ammunitions and weapons to the rebel forces; as, unlike the White family, they had _not_ taken an oath to never harm another living creature, an oath which Amarissa had to focus very hard to observe.

The first meeting with the Black family of Fairchess was something of a strange one, there was the Black King, the Black Queen, and the Black Prince, as well as the Black Knight who accompanied them as protection. Now normally, the Black Knight is a boy with very long hair, the longer it is, the more dedicated they are to the Black family; this boy had very short hair (something like what we would know as a buzz cut), which was very strange, as most times, if a Black Knight had short hair, it was because they were to be executed. No one said anything about the anomaly though, and although Dack gave the Knight a strange look, nothing more than that was mentioned of the strange situation.

Later on that day, when Alice met with Cat's siblings, Tom joked that Black must really belong to the Black family, which earned him a glare from his older brother, and an even fiercer one from the Black Knight who had been passing by at the time.

He scoffed at Tom's joke and as he went away, Alice distinctly heard him mutter, "There are no slaves even in the army."

The Cats didn't seem to have heard the insult and were instead reprimanding Tom for having such bad humor. She decided not to tell them what she'd heard, and as she saw Dack coming around the corner, she dashed away to her room to evade him.

"Hello ... again." Lawrence said from his spot on her bed.

She had been half expecting him and was not the least bit surprised that he was filling her room with the smoke that, she only then noticed, smelled like the earth after it has rained. "Tell me about my mother." she demanded, settling on the bed and wondering where _that_ came from.

"Alright." Lawrence replied, took a long deep breath, and he began the tale, with none of the abnormally long pauses he regularly took, "I was still very young when your mother came into the world, my sister had just turned into a Butterfly and was beginning her career as a lawyer, something unheard of for a Butterfly, and a woman even much more so. Your grandparents had already been long awaiting a daughter to take the throne. She was immediately made to live in the East Wing with her tutors. She was a fast learner, by the time she was ten, she knew more than most scholars did their whole lives; her parents wanted more though.

The poor girl, she called for me _constantly_, more times in one day than you do in a week. Genevieve just didn't get much chance to be a child." he stopped for a long breath of his smoke and then went on, "Everything she could possibly want was given to her, and so she desired things that were difficult to attain, or simply impossible. The last time she called me, it was her wedding day; like any bride, she was scared, perhaps it _would_ have been better if she married someone willing, one of the many suitors that begged for her hand, instead of a man that had tried to kill her. I just told her to do what she felt would be for the best. That choice would be why you're here today."

Alice lied back on the bed, soaking in all of what she just learned, "And the Cats? How did she feel about them?"

Another long breath and he answered, "Well shortly before you were born, she looked high and low for the greatest and strongest people in all the worlds to protect you. She was honestly excited to have a child so she could give them the childhood she never had. Eventually she decided on two child mercenaries, so they could play with you as much as protect you."

"I don't understand, what does this have to do with how she felt about the Cats, and if she loved me so much, why did she want me dead?" Alice asked, wondering all the more about her mother.

He shook his head a little, but answered anyway, "Genevieve was never stable, very little for her was stable, and when your father began to hide you away from her, she panicked. She wasn't sure who she wanted to keep more, you or your father, and so she wanted to compromise, she never had any plan to kill you." Lawrence took a deep drag from his smoke as this reveled through Alice's head, and then he continued the epic, after a deep breath of fresh air, "She told the White Rabbit she wanted you to die, and she knew that the Cheshire Cat had a conscience that was quickly returning and took a risk, trusting that he would keep you safe. She wanted you out of the way of danger, she knew your father would try to use you in a rebellion, he would turn you against her, and she never wanted a thing like that." he took yet a another deep drag, not bothering to clear out the smoke before ending the tale, "If anything ... she's thankful ... to the Cats ... for keeping you ... safe."

He suddenly got up as the window appeared, much more ornate looking than the window he normally came and went by, and he even seemed a bit surprised at the sight of it, "What is it?" Alice asked, "Why are you leaving already?"

"Because ... your mother ... is calling me." he replied as he closed the window on Alice.

Lawrence looked about the room he had just entered from Alice's room, it hadn't changed much from what he remembered, save for the older woman who sat upon the ruby red covered bed.

He easily found the young, nervous woman from so long ago, within this _frightening_ ruler who was currently with her head down, apparently crying so much that she hadn't even noticed Lawrence yet.

He went over to her bed and began to smoke, she still hadn't noticed him, so he wrapped an arm around her, and he found that she must have known he was there, because she didn't act surprised, but instead she threw her face into his chest crying into it, just like she used to when she was little girl. He said nothing but stroked her hair with one hand and held onto his smoke with the other.

"Lawrence, why did I do _everything_ wrong?" she finally asked, "I lost my daughter, I never had my husband, he's using our child to build a stronger resistance against me, tell me, what went wrong?" Lawrence did not answer; she knew he could not tell her, not even if he wanted to.

"Genevieve." was all he said as he held onto the blonde woman who cried heavily into his shoulder, as always before, this would be a long night.


	29. The Black's Package

A/N: Sorry, school has been super busy, and I totally need to start going to tutoring for my pre-cal/college algebra and physics classes, because I am sucking it up in those classes. I had planned to update this chapter _yesterday_ but since my parents went to Columbus, Ohio to drop off my sister at OSU, I had to stay at my aunt's and while I had my laptop while I was there the internet was weird over there and after spending thirteen hours at school (had after-school practice until 8:00) I was just extremely tired and wasn't up to it.

Now to thank the reviewers/favoriters/alerters: I got two people to thank, the ever lovable, the always here, the amazing, the great, Jhinra, for reviewing as she always does, and I must also thank CatRock, here's that update you wanted, if it explains anything, I don't quite know, but I hope you like it.

**PLEASE READ THIS**: I was thinking that I would do a Q&A sort of thing, you can ask me _anything_ about the story, about the plot, the characters, the ideas, the inspiration, if there will be a sequel or a spin-off (which there might), any question you can possibly think of, and so long as it doesn't have any plot spoilers, I will answer it, and if it _is_ a spoiler, then I will tell you and I will give you an idea of _how_ it's a spoiler, if you want it anyway.

That is all.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

* * *

The Black family of Fairchess was very different from the White family of Chessleman in many, many, numerous ways. They were violent, they were happy to be in war, their country _prospered_ in war, it was more of a despotism than a monarchy, and those were just to name a few. Alice quickly found that even the creatures that they had brought with them, some willing and some not, to fight in the war were _very_ different from the ones in Wonderland or even Chessleman; they were strange, frightful, menacing creatures, things such as: the dangerous gangerlou, the ferocious hyounslkd, the horrid jackaslamante, and so many others that could strike fear in the very core of any person. The jubileedee had, instead of traveling by lieu of Alice's dress pockets, taken to hiding away in her room, where he was considerably safer.

She was set on her nerves by them, the Prince Garithinias, in truth did not seem to be at all too bad a person, but he was constantly about the Black Knight, and so she was unsure if it was because the Black Knight was supposed to protect Garithinias, or if they were close friends, or just what exactly. She rarely ever even saw him without the Black Knight, the rare times that she did, she would try to speak with the shy, young man.

Such as at present, Garithinias was without his, _normally_, ever present guard, and the two were talking politics, although shy, he was very adamant about what he believed, and Alice greatly enjoyed talking to him, unlike Dack who would just take the most popular opinion into consideration. She noticed that Garithinias was very much unlike the rest of his family, where they could be cruel, strict, and rule with an iron fist, she could easily see that he was kind, rather relaxed, and would likely have a just rule; it was because of these traits, she believed, that the rest of his family seemed to ostracize him.

Alice could be a very blunt person, as would be demonstrated by the question she would ask the Black Prince, "Your family doesn't quite like you, do they?"

Garithinias's head turned to stare strangely at her with black eyes, "What are you talking about?" he finally asked in reply.

"Because you're very different from them, could that be why?"

"Excuse me Princess Alice, but I really think this is not the most appropriate of topics to be discussing; come now, let us talk of the diminishing population of the gangerkoul." he was desperate to change the subject, even if it was to the population concerns of the lesser known, much gentler, cousin of the gangerlouk.

Alice stared at him intensely, when something clicked in her head, and because she had little self-control over recently realized news, she blurted it aloud, "You're in love with your Black Knight!"

He clamped a strong hand over her mouth with a panicked look flooding his dark eyes, "Please, do not dare repeat that again, I beg of you." he pleaded in a rushed whisper.

Alice nodded her head, then stared at him curiously, "Why are you so worried? That sort of thing is very common; many of my ancestors had same-sex partners and adopted an heir."

Garithinias shook his head, "Not in Fairchess, that sort of thing is forbidden, we almost didn't help the rebels just because of that; besides, Nal'rium isn't even any sort of human."

Alice almost wondered _who_ Nal'rium was, but quickly figured that out and focused on the second half of the information, "What do you mean?"

"No Black Knight has ever been a sort of human; they are all shape-shifters. It is to make sure they can protect the crown prince under _any_ situation. Nal'rium hates my family though and refuses to swear his allegiance, not even to me."

He seemed a bit saddened when mentioning this, but Alice was instead confused, "But he is almost always somewhere close to you, I would assume that he, at the least, does not hate you."

"No, he might hate us, but he hates doing a bad job even more." Garithinias then walked off and was quickly joined by Nal'rium.

Alice walked off to the library to see if she might find something about the shapeshifters of Fairchess.

She quickly found little information about even Fairchess in general; she was only able to find all of one entry about shapeshifters in any of the library's books:

"_The transformus modus, or shapeshifter, is a creature with the ability to alter their form to that of any creature, plant life, or inanimate object, it is also capable of using the natural abilities of whatever they have changed into. The true form of this creature is not known, nor does anyone know how long these creatures live for._"

Two sentences, which was all she could find about shapeshifters. Alice sighed, letting her head smack against the open book; the passing librarian stared strangely at the young princess before continuing on his way.

She finally decided to leave the library, after another hour of futile searching. She instead took to wandering the extensive headquarters, still considering all that she had learned with Lawrence.

If her mother truly wanted her dead, then shouldn't she already be such? Her mother had had numerous opportunities to take care of her daughter, so why hadn't she? Was it what Lawrence said, the Queen wanted to love her daughter and the safest place for her was away from the castle; or was there an ulterior motive behind the Queen's plans that not even Lawrence knew of?

Alice finally looked about her; all that walking had led her back to her room, where Lawrence was smoking on her bed.

She was about to ask what he was doing there, but he beat her to the punch.

"Your mother ... wants to ... see you." he answered simply.


	30. A Meeting of Strange Sorts

A/N: Amazing isn't it, I finally finished that chapter I'd been working on for lord only knows how long, there's probably about two more chapters after the one I just finished, which is still, oh crap, three chapters away, I need to get on the ball and write them out before I run out of time. I'm trying to finish this story this year, as much fun as it is to write, I'd rather not be focused on one story for two entire years; I mean, I've still got a spin-off of this to write. Anyway, it was another busy week for me, Monday I had after school practice; Tuesday I had to do some shopping with the 'rents; Wednesday, I had driving hours to do; Thursday I had to go across the border to get my hair cut by my aunt(my hair is now beautifully short again :D); Friday, I had a football game; finally, today, I had a unified sports orientation/meeting thing to go to this morning. In all, quite a busy week, but I have no homework this weekend, besides math which isn't due until Wednesday.

Now, enough of my week, onto the important people who have given me the drive to write this story for the past year and some months, the reviewers/favoriters/alerters: Jhinra, of course, she was the first one to send in a review, as she almost always is; CatRock, who, unfortunately, has no fanfiction account so I cannot reply to her reviews as I do with everyone else's; those are all the people who have reviewed, only two, because it's only been a week.

**Please read this:** I forgot to mention in the last chapter, you have until about November 20th or so, to submit those questions for the Q&A, so I should have _at least_ two more updates before then, and you shouldn't feel too rushed to think up questions, plus you can send me multiple series of questions if you think up more and you already sent one list of them. I can't wait to see everyone's questions! :)

I'm sorry it's a short chapter with that ending.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

* * *

Alice could only blink her eyes dumbly, "What?"

"Your mother ... she wants ... to see you ... let's go." Lawrence's voice seemed a bit more rushed than usual as he motioned for the blonde to come towards him.

"But, I mean..." Alice stuttered, she wondered why she was so hesitant to meet her mother, sure she was evil and all, but still, this was still her _own _mother.

"So ... you don't want ... to see ... your own mother?" he asked, seeming to have read her thoughts.

"No, I mean, well, I don't know."

"I can't leave ... until your mother ... is calm ... again ... and she is ... _raving mad_ ... with concern ... for you." he could sense the woman's nerves, "I swear ... on my wings ... that you ... will be safe."

Alice glanced at him, trying to see _some_ sort of emotion on his face, although nothing was shown, she decided to trust his words. She nodded in answer and finally approached him.

Lawrence slowly removed himself from the bed and approached the wall where a window appeared; it was made of some sort of tree branch and when Lawrence helped her through, she found herself in one of her playrooms.

"Butterfly, how are we here?" She asked him, knowing he should not have been able to come here.

"Your mother... gave me directions. She should ... be here ... soon." he set himself to smoke as he pleased, making the nearby flowers frown.

"I'm here already." a new voice interjected, and from the trees stepped Alice's mother.

They stared at each other for a long time in an awkward silence. Alice looked at her mother, trying to implant her image in her mind; her blonde hair, Alice noticed, was starting to go grey, there were crow's feet at the corner of her eyes, wrinkles were making themselves more prominent on her face; she could not help but to still think her mother beautiful.

Genevieve carefully approached her daughter and she slowly raised a hand, as though to touch her, but was quick to put it back down. "Oh, my dear Alice, you've grown to be a beautiful woman."

Alice had to choke back the tears threatening to escape from her eyes; she hugged her mother; she stiffened for only a second before hugging her daughter back.

"How are you here?" Alice asked her mother, "Father said you didn't know this place existed."

"Didn't know this place existed? My dear, this place is Wonderland's worst kept secret; everyone knows it, but can't find it; I do wonder how your father found it; only those with royal blood are supposed to be able to find it."

The two women were quiet for a short time; Alice trying to think of something to say; her mother finally on the verge of realizing something big.

"Mother, why did you kill so many of the bandersnatch?" she finally asked her.

Genevieve's brows scrunched, making ugly lines in her face, "Bandersnatch? I haven't even gone to the Tulgey Woods in ages, and why would _I_ kill them, I ordered the law that did not allow civilians in there."

Alice was surprised, "But, both the Bandersnatch and Jabberwocky Kings told me a blonde woman with blue eyes was going on murderous sieges in the Tulgey Woods."

"When did you meet _those_ Kings? You know what, never mind, I know perfectly well who is behind this; I should have known from the start that this would happen one day." And she turned to run through the trees.

"Wait!" Alice gripped onto her fleeing mother, "What are you talking about, who did this?"

Genevieve scowled, "Your father, and my sister."


	31. A Revolt Within

A/N: I was going to put this up earlier, but ended up going out to eat with my parents instead, sorry, it just so happens that I _love_ PF Chang's salt & pepper calamari and can finish a whole plate of it by myself, as well as half a plate of rice, and before we got there I had eaten three egg rolls, and now I'm kind of starting to feel hungry again. Anyway, to more important matters, I _was_ going to put this up on Saturday, but truth be told, I have a competition this Saturday, so, while practice is at 4:30 PM, I'm probably sleeping in until 2:00, and I won't be home until sometime after ten or eleven, and if you're in marching band, then you _know_ how freaking tired you are after a competition, so I'm going to be half dead and will probably just fall into bed and sleep like a log when I get home. That is why I am updating today.

Moving on, I have yet to finish the chapter I was working on, I know how I'm going to end it, just not how I'm going to get there, but not to worry, I'll have an idea soon enough; I'm also beginning work on the spin-off to this story, it's going to be totally AU, takes place in our world, there will be some characters you will never see again, others in new positions, and possibly new faces to meet, but I hope you will read it when it is finally out. I'm also thinking that I might write background stories once this series is over, like a story about how Hatter and Hare met, how Alice ended up getting away from Cat in her playroom, something about the Queen and King, maybe even one about the Queen and her sister, and possibly one about Alice and Sister. I'm not sure if I _will_ do those stories, I don't mean to raise hopes only to crush them, I just thought you might want to know in case if I do. I wonder if anyone actually reads these things?

Now, most importantly, all of the great reviewers/favoriters/alerters!: Jhinra, of course, I mean, when _doesn't_ she review?; ExaggerationElimination, who reviewed, and favorited/alerted the story _and_ myself, that's awesome of ExaggerationElimination :D ; and CatRock, she reviewed again, isn't there an option where you type in your email address and they send you the account information, I might be wrong, but that's how most sites do it in case if members forget their passwords or account information.

Yikes! This author's note is nearly as long as the chapter, so let's wrap it up. (Sorry this chapter is short, next ones are pretty long!)

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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Lawrence helped Alice out of the window and exited out of it as it faded into the wall. Alice began to pace her room soon after.

According to what Alice's mother had said, her twin sister, Gwenivere, was the true murderess of the bandersnatch and the whole reason her mother had such a horrible reputation, she was even part of the reason why she married her husband.

Her older sister had been so eager to gain the crown that she killed their parents for it, and that began the silent war.

When Genevieve had her sister imprisoned for treason, she had thought that would be the end of it, but her sister's evil grasp reached far beyond her cell. Her mother had to get rid of the people under her sister's spell, and there was no counter to the curse, so the only thing to be done was to execute them.

Only now, Gwenivere had control over one of the only people that her mother would never dare to hurt.

That was the whole truth, her mother was not evil, only under unfortunate circumstance; her father was being controlled; her aunt, who was little less than an urban legend to the citizens of Wonderland, was the sole catalyst to almost every event in her life.

It was because of this woman that Alice had gone so long without knowing her parents and had been thrown into this faux revolution.

"Well then ... Princess ... what ... shall you do ... now?" Lawrence asked her.

She finally stood still for a moment, before an idea struck her, "I have to talk with the most cunning person here, the only person I can trust to keep this quiet." she answered, and she left by the door while Lawrence took his leave through the window.

It took Alice over an hour of some sneaking through the headquarters to deftly avoid all other people before she finally met with the man she had been searching for so long.

"Garithinias!" Alice said in a quiet whisper as she latched onto the man.

He seemed very surprised at the Princess hanging off his arm, as did the Black Knight beside him, who glared at her.

"I need your help, it is of the utmost importance that the matter be kept quiet." she explained as she pulled the man into an empty room and the Knight deftly followed after.

"Um, Princess, just what is the meaning of this?" Garithinias asked her tentatively; his guard seemed ready to attack if necessary.

"It's about the revolution, it's a coup."

"Well, naturally, they're going to put you in power after they take out your mother."

"No, it's to put my aunt in the throne."

"You have an aunt?"

"Yes, the fact that my mother and she are twins was kept quiet, for in case if someone killed one of them, there was another to take her place."

"What if that's just a convenient lie, and how did you learn this anyway?"

"Because, I met my mother, with the help of Lawrence Vanchre, a Butterfly, they might bend the truth, but they cann_ot_ outright lie, especially to their royalty."

"So, then what do you need me for, I'm useless, my own family knows that."

"Which is why no one will expect you of aiding a revolt in the revolution, it's a brilliant idea."

"If you're to use him, then you'll need _me _to make it so brilliant." a new voice interjected.

Everyone turned their heads to see a smirking Amarissa leaned against the door, and Alice smiled. For who would suspect the young royals to plan a revolt within a revolution?


	32. Before the Day

A/N: I was going to update this yesterday, but it was area contest for marching band, we made it through the prelims and to the finals, for the first time in four years, but got like eighth place, and they were only taking the first seven to state, oh well, I was still happy with my performance, was definitely my best by far. Anyway, what I noticed the other day about my last update, was that I updated on the one year anniversary of when I first published this story. How lame is it that I didn't even _realize_ that?

I have some people to thank now: first off, I would like to announce James Birdsong's return to the reviews, I've been wondering where he went off to; of course there's Jhinra, it's like a sign of the apocalypse almost if she doesn't review; and finally, we arrive to CatRock, haha, that's funny, me, playing an instrument, I haven't touched my clarinet since the eighth grade, no, I'm in color guard(flag people for those who don't know), and the wind on Saturday was a total _bitch_, no other way to describe it, I actually dropped a toss(is not the type to drop a toss in a contest, or really feel bad about it).

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED, FAVORITED, ALERTED IN THE PAST YEAR THAT I HAVE BEEN POSTING THIS STORY ON HERE! I LOVE YOU ALL! X3

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review (like you have for the past year and seventeen days) :D

* * *

The three royals and one shapeshifter looked down at the map below them.

"Alright, the fight's going to happen _tomorrow_, I've gotten both the Jabberwocky King and Bandersnatch Princess to see where I'm going with this and believe what I've told them. Hopefully, everything will go according to plan and it will end well." Alice said as they began to pack away all the items.

It really was a good thing that they were so young, or females, or just considered insignificant, because then, no one missed their presence and they were able to have their own private strategy meetings.

Alice glanced over at Garithinias and Nal'rium, the Black Prince was looking something over on the map and the Black Knight was watching him. During the past few weeks that the royals had been working together, she had noticed the way Nal'rium watched his charge; he always had a tough stare trained on the boy, which hardened considerably when he looked at anyone else. She was fairly sure that the shapeshifter must like his charge as much as the Prince liked the guard.

"Alice." she turned to look at Amarissa, the younger girl had finally grown to like Alice, planning a revolt within a revolution together could do that to you.

"Yes?" Alice asked in reply.

"So it's going to be tomorrow." she stated, and then frowned, "It's not fair, I've been here _way _longer than my sister, and _she's_ the one going out there. She won't even fight." the girl complained.

"You wouldn't be able to fight either." Alice told her, making the younger girl fume, she continued, "Besides, Chesselman cannot risk losing an heir to the throne."

"Then what about you two?" she asked, drawing Graithinias's attention.

"I am the first, but not _only_, Black Prince, and Alice is supposed to _lead_ this revolution." Garithinias answered, "There would be uproar if she wasn't there to lead them."

"And what if she dies?"

The elder two were quiet at this, not quite having an answer to that question.

"Then it would be best for Alice to discuss with her advisors what course of action should be taken in such a case." Nal'rium's deep voice answered.

Alice nodded, and then turned to Garithinias and Amarissa, "If I die, you two will lead Wonderland jointly, that is if my mother also dies and my father attempts to put my aunt in the throne."

The two royals stared at her in surprise, having not expected a second kingdom to be in their probable futures, "Then it would be best if you were to write a document of that sort, entitling the two to your throne in case if you should die."

A window appeared in the wall, surprising the royals and causing Nal'rium to draw his weapon, but out of the window came Lawrence, and, of all people, his sister, Jilliana.

Alice stared at the other Butterfly; now that the siblings stood together, she could see a number of similarities between the two; they looked eerily alike, save for their wings; Lawrence had blue wings and Jilliana had lilac.

Nal'rium's sword was at a dangerous proximity to Lawrence's Adam's apple, but the smoker and the lawyer kept up masks of indifference.

"No, Nal'rium, these are some advisors of mine, they can be trusted." Alice told him, Garithinias forced the shapeshifter to sheathe his weapon.

"Yes, well Alice, we know of your plan, and of course, there is legal documentation to take care of first." Jilliana told her, as she brought forth a briefcase, and from it, she pulled out a packet of paper, "These are the documents concerning who should take your throne if you were to die." she paused and took a quick glance at Garithinias, "Although, in truth, I do not agree with the choice of a _prince_ as an heir to a _queen_dom, but that is your choice and I shan't argue it."

Alice listened to the woman as she read the document's words and the fine print.

"If everything is to your liking, then sign at the dotted line." the Butterfly said while handing over a pen to the blonde princess.

Alice nodded and made her signature in cursive at the designated line; Jilliana then took the packet and placed it back in her briefcase.

"Well then, I pray that you all return safely." JIlliana told them as she then took her leave through the window.

"Good ... luck, though ... you won't ... need it." Lawrence said before lazily following his sister's lead.

The royals and guard again looked at each other before finally leaving the room for the last time. Alice and the group then went their own ways, when she arrived to her room, Cat was there; he was swishing his tail calmly, never a good sign.

"Cat, what are you doing here?" she asked, hastily closing her door, lest anyone should see her conferring with her _secret_ feline beau.

Cat stalked up to her, "Just wondering what has kept the Princess so busy that neither she, nor the other two young nobles, has been seen at all for the past few weeks."

Alice gulped, she knew she shouldn't even _try_ to lie to _the_ Cheshire Cat, but still she tried, "Well, _I_ have been doing some reading in the library on fighting techniques and practicing them in some private rooms I found; I've not the slightest clue about the others though."

Cat's eyes narrowed intro thin slits as he looked at her, "Alice, do not attempt to lie to me, you can lie to anyone _but __**me**_." he had stalked closer to her and now the blonde princess was trapped between the cold wall behind her and the warm chest in front.

She glanced to the side, to try and evade his intense gaze and he instead grabbed her chin, forcing her head, and thus her eyes, back to him.

"Alice, I merely wish to know that there is nothing to worry about, so please, tell me what is going on."

Alice nodded, took a deep breath and answered, "I met my mother and she explained everything."

"You mean everything about how she wanted to _kill_ you? Alice, why did you meet with her, you _know_ how dangerous it is?"

"Cat, my mother _knew_ you were the best mercenary in all of Wonderland, and the most likely to fulfill a job, so why would she only tell the White Rabbit about the plan?" she didn't give him time to answer, filling in the blanks herself, "Because my mother _knew_ you would have gone through with the job, you were supposed to do as she told you, and she only told you to protect me and make sure I was safe."

He seemed to half believe her, but he was still reluctant to think good of such a woman as Alice's mother, "And what about what the bandersnatch said, your mother led the sieges against them?"

"My mother has a twin sister, Gwenivere, who was supposed to become the queen, but _she_ was the one who killed my grandparents, and _she_ is the one killing the bandersnatch, and doing all of these terrible things."

"If that were the truth, then why did no one know that there was _two_ Princesses of Hearts?"

"So that if one of them was taken out by an assassin or kidnapped, they had another to take her place; besides, do you know how many monarchies have been _destroyed_ by siblings feuding over whom deserved the throne? No my grandparents were smart enough to take my mother out of the picture and when they were killed by her sister, she was able to take the throne without anyone guessing anything."

"Then why did she send all of those people to the guillotine?"

"My aunt may be locked in some jail cell deep beneath the castle, but her magic is strong enough that she can control anyone she wishes to, and there is _no_ way to counter her magic, and right now, she has my _father_ under her spell, which is why he was able to get this army amassed together; my mother would _never_ kill him, she _loves_ him."

"She loves a man that's trying to kill her?"

"That's why."

"What?"

"Her plan was to give him the chance to kill her, and have him actually kill her sister instead, but she never got the chance to do that because my aunt got a hold on him; why would he have such a _huge_ army, if it was _him_, his plan would have been to have it look like another kingdom or a vigilante had killed her in the middle of the night, not to wage outright _war_ on her and have so many people get killed in the crossfire."

He mulled over this in his mind, and sighed, dropping his head onto her shoulder; she could just _see_ the gears going overtime in his head and he mumbled something at her, "Say that I believe you, please tell me that you have a plan and that you aren't going to make this up along the way like last time."

Alice smiled and hugged Cat; what other man would so readily accept an explanation against something that he had believed in for _years_?


	33. The Battle Begins

A/N: Yes, another chapter for you all, and we're getting steadily closer to the end, right now I'm working on what is the, maybe, second to last chapter, which is only two chapters from this. Yeah, instead of working on that chapter, I got a bit distracted working on other personal writing projects, and some of those extra between the scenes chapters I talked about. I also received som pretty scary news from my mom today, apparently, over in Matamoros, there's been a sudden surge in the drug war violence, since the Zettas, the bad guys, their boss just got killed, and the violence is pouring out into Reynosa (about ten to fifteen minutes away) where my family lives and my dad works. My dad is over there right now, and they're not allowing people in or out of the factory he works at, or the city for that matter, so it's pretty intense right now. On a lighter note, I now own three wigs, I got one for my Halloween costume, and another two just last night, I got them from the guard advisor, she made us work concession stands last night at the football game because it was homecoming, and I had to wear a wig, since I didn't want to wear the sparkly top hat she made everyone else wear, at the end of the night, she told me I could keep the two wigs, since they were just sample wigs anyway. A lot of people asked if it was a wig or my real hair, and a few less asked if I was a dude wearing a wig and clip on earrings, it was pretty funny, especially how they kept on apologizing. :)

Moving on from my life, time to thank everyone for reviewing/favoriting/alerting: only Jhinra reviewed this time around, because she's so bad A, she refuses to let anyone else review with her. :P

Don't forget to send in your questions for the Q&A that's coming out in two weeks, don't worry about me missing your message or something like that, I check my email _at least_ six times a day, if not more, there is no chance of me not seeing your questions, so unless I somehow end up in the hospital (which isn't likely to happen, I don't watch JACKASS and dream of being them, and although I've come close, I have yet to be hit by a car, and I've yet to be sick enough to warrant going to the hospital) or die (not happening, I'm a healthy teenager, unless I suddenly die from eating too much of my leftover Halloween candy) your questions will be seen, and answered.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

* * *

Alice tried to swallow the lump in her throat; she was dressed in her armor and had the Jabberwocky necklace and the bandersnatch feather in her hands; she sighed deeply and held them close, just guessing at what she had to do to call them and hoping it would work.

The resistance was preparing the final touches on the war efforts in a clearing some ways outside of the capital, from whence they planned to knock down the wall separating the rebel forces from the Queen of Hearts' castle. Alice paced in her tent, which was being disassembled as she walked to and fro; hoping the jabberwockies and bandersnatch would reach them in time for going out against the Queen's forces.

Alice's head jerked at the resounding shriek from outside her tent and rushed to the entrance, which was instead blocked by a bandersnatch.

The bandersnatch bowed its head as Alice tried to figure if this was the Bandersnatch Princess or another bandersnatch, it then lifted its head and stared Alice in the eye, "I could only get five others who were willing to fight." and Alice knew it was the Bandersnatch Princess.

Alice nodded and curtsied to the royalty, as well as she could in armor, "That is more than enough; I must thank you again for your help."

"Now then, I must ask something of you."

"Of course, anything."

"Might you please tell your people to stop trying to attack us?"

The bandersnatch moved aside, allowing Alice to see five other bandersnatch perched safely atop a tree and looking down at the people with weapons who were trying to threaten them.

Alice was, of course, quite worried by this and immediately went over to order her people to stop and explained who the creatures were, and the people could barely believe that these strange and deadly looking birds were really the fabled frumious bandersnatch. The bandersnatch came down from the tree once they found that they would no longer be annoyed by the useless attempts of the people to try and intimidate them away. Once down from the tree, the five bandersnatch went straight up to Alice and bowed to her; she saw that of these creatures, four of them seemed quite young with only one who seemed to be the adult of the group.

The adult approached her and bowed his head down to his feet, "I am the Princess's bodyguard, these four are some youngsters from the flock, we are here to serve the army of the Princess Alice of Hearts in whatever way we can." the other four followed the elder's suit and bowed low to her and Alice curtsied in reply.

"I must give you my greatest thanks for your assistance today." she told them, "I know that many evils have been forced upon the bandersnatch, and I hope to correct these wrongs once this is over." the bandersnatch just nodded his head before going to calm the younger bandersnatch who seemed rather nervous at all the people about them.

While everyone obsessed over the sight of the bandersnatch, Alice went back to her tent, to check over the attack positions for what was well over the twentieth time that day. She heard someone enter the tent and merely assumed that it was any number of the people with whom she was working, but then the person turned her to look at them, and there was Dack, whom she was supposed to be getting to know because the rebel leaders wanted her to marry him and whom she had almost _entirely_ forgotten all about.

"Alice, I should like to talk to you." he stated simply, there was no one else in the tent with them, and while with she would never think this, Alice could not help but be solely focused on the fact of how improper it was for a man to be in an unmarried woman's room, with no chaperone or anyone else at all.

"Well, I should like for there to be a chaperone present." Dack made her feel nervous, which was part of why she always hid from him, and although Cat also made her nervous, it was not at all in the same way as the nervousness that came into being around Dack.

He seemed a bit upset at this, "Well, if we are to be married after all of this, then I do not see any problem with us being in a room alone." he replied.

"But I do not plan to marry you after all of this, or ever, in truth."

"That is part of what was promised to the Gabbory kingdom for assisting your Queendom in this time of need, should you _refuse_ to marry me, then I will have to take the materials and soldiers we have provided you, with me back to Gabbory."

Alice was silent for a moment before replying, "Very well, then take them, I would rather my queendom not be associated with a kingdom that has to be _promised_ something just to help their neighbors who have always provided their aid in the past." and then she moved to walk past him, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"No, you _will_ marry me."

"No I shall _not_, now, let _go_ of me!" and she shrieked when Dack gripped tighter.

The two barely had the chance to blink before Dack was suddenly held by Cat a good foot or two off the ground; had Cat been as fast as a bandersnatch, their subconscious would not have even had the time to _think_ of blinking before Dack was in the air.

Cat was casting a fierce glare the young man gripping at the hand that held him by the front of his shirt, "Should you ever _dare_ to touch Alice again, not even she will be able to stop me from _killing_ you." and he let go of Dack; the prince fell to the ground with a '_thud_' and crab-walked quickly away from Cat.

He coughed lightly before saying, "I do not care if you _are_ a Cat, you still have no business meddling in the affairs of nobles."

"I do if one of those nobles is my Alice." Cat replied, pulling her close to him and even wrapping his tail about her, making the blonde princess blush; she never would have guessed that _Cat_ would be the one to reveal their relationship, even under these unfavorable circumstances.

Dack seemed confused for a moment, before it occurred to him just what Cat had meant, "Wh-what?" he asked in disbelief.

Instead of answering, Mathis and a few others came rushing into the room, having (quickly for regular people at least) responded to Alice's shriek. Cat then guided Alice out of the tent while the rebel leaders tried to get what had just happened out of Dack. He guided her over towards where the bandersnatch seemed to be discussing something in low, strange, trilling sounds.

"Cat." he looked at Alice, having understood the quiet question in his name.

"We'll get found out sooner or later; it's best at a time when they believe I can die in battle and they won't have to worry about it anymore." he sighed, "It is for the best if you act as though that was the first time you had ever heard of my feelings, and you proceed to ignore me." and before Alice could argue this, he walked off quickly to do damage control.

Alice stood silently, watching after Cat's back; she barely saw a bandersnatch approach her from the corner of her eye. She felt something prick at her eyes and shut them tightly to try and stop the tears that were building up. Why did Cat have to try and be selfless for Alice when all he really did was hurt her more?

"Oh now, is the little Princess in love with her guard, how cliché."

Alice turned her head to look at the bandersnatch, only to find that it was a very strange looking bandersnatch, one whose feathers were not a strange shade of orange like the others', but instead a tanned color that was far too bizarre for a bandersnatch. Then, before her eyes, the bandersnatch's form began to change, shifting and turning, like a fluid being poured from one jar into a strange, curved vase; until at last the form settled onto a very familiar one, that of the Black Knight.

"Heh, consider yourself lucky Princess, you are the second person I have ever changed in front of that gets to live." he told her.

"Why were you a bandersnatch?" was her only question, deciding that the others would have to be saved for another day.

"The Black King and Queen desire to have a partnership with the bandersnatch, they're hoping to be able to call upon them during war as well. They dare not lower themselves to speaking with creatures, even if one of them is royalty, and sent me to do so; I thought having their shape might appease to them. They have refused to speak to me so far."

"I thought you hated the Black family, why would you do something on their behalf?"

"Oh, I do hate them, every last one, but it is my duty to serve them, as it has been my family's duty for the past twenty generations, and I must fulfill my duty or I shall shame my family's name."

"But you don't hate them all, or else why would you serve Garithinias so dutifully?" she questioned, sending Nal'rium a piercing look that had no effect whatsoever.

"Because it is my duty." he answered plainly.

"Duty, is that _all_ _anything_ is to you guards? It is your _duty_ to make sure that we are not hurt, and yet none of you realize that _you_ can hurt us the most; it is your _duty_ to make sure we are safe and that our thrones are not compromised, but you _completely_ disregard our feelings in the process; do you even realize that Garithinias _loves_ you, no matter how impossible it would seem to love someone like _you_?" she ranted, getting more upset with every word that spilled out of her mouth, and she vaguely wondered who she was talking more about, Garithinias or herself, it was difficult to tell.

"Of course I realize that, it is quite hard for me not to, but as his guard, my first and foremost responsibility is his safety; how safe would he be if I were to return those feelings? We would have new enemies to fight, I would be constantly distracted by his presence, and he would be in danger by even my personal enemies who far excel my own skills; it fulfills my duty if I do not love him." he explained.

"And your own guard recognizes these same flaws, along with the fact that any child born between you would possibly kill one of his relations, or even himself; could you so easily have his child knowing that?" he gave Alice a hard look as she took in that last question.

Finally he huffed; "Criticize my decisions again when you need not hesitate to answer that." he walked away, morphing into a bird of some sort mid-step and flying off to find Garithinias.

Alice stared after him for a while, furious at him for insulting her and having to provide such good reason to not be angry; she could only be angry for a short time though, because at that moment, one of the rebel force came up to her and told her that they were ready to leave for battle.

And so, off she went, into battle.


	34. Into Battle

A/N: Ok, I have like, really, super huge, **_BIG NEWS_** everyone, I just finished writing the last chapter of this story, and I don't mean last chapter and then epilogue, I mean, I finished the epilogue too, I mean as in, that's it, it's over. This chapter you are about to read, is only four chapters from the end of this series, and then we have background one-shots. I have to admit, I'm still kind of teary about the whole thing being finished; I know I wanted to finish it this year, but hey, I seriously thought I wasn't going to finish it until _at least_ December; I'm basically done, there's no more plot twists I can add to this to make it any longer, at least, none that I _want_ to add. It's pretty sad to think that the thing I spent the past year and almost half writing, can basically be read in a day, give or take a few hours, but I'm looking at the bright side of the sixty plus reviews I have on this story.

I want to thank Jhinra for reviewing the last chapter, and your nefarious plot was foiled, apparently CatRock(now under the new name of PS) _had_ reviewed as well last chapter, it's just that fanfiction is in cahoots with you and didn't register her last review. But don't worry, now that PS and I are on the case, we're going to take you both down to Chinatown, old school style. (In case you couldn't tell, that was me thanking both of those lovely ladies for their reviews, and Jhinra for putting me on her Author Alerts!)

I want to remind everyone that they can still send in questions, and now they don't have to worry about their question being a spoiler, because I plan to update all of the remaining chapters before the Q&A is to go out next Saturday, so you can literally ask me _anything_ about the story ( even stuff like Alice's sizes[srsly though, don't ask that, I don't know what they are])

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

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The was a strange quiet over the queendom of Wonderland that day; there was not a living soul out on the street, it seemed that not even the sewer rats dared to make a noise from their subterranean nests, and if one were to look for birds, you would find none anywhere, not even an egg in any of the vacant nests.

The castle though, was a different story, there was a great hustle and bustle there, for years there had been rumors of a second rebellion against the queen, the first having been when she first took to her throne more than twenty years ago, but no one seemed to have realized that the rumors might be truth and that the army quickly approaching the castle was really the rebel forces who had for so long been in hiding.

A maid within the castle let out a violent shriek when she looked out one of the windows, and when a nearby butler came to see what was the matter, he saw it clearly through the window; there was the army, yes, they had already known the army was coming, but no one had known that a ferocious herd of jabberwockies was going to be with the army.

The butler sent a nearby pageboy to warn the castle guard of this new predicament, who quickly paled with the news; it took a small army to injure even _one_ jabberwocky, if there were really as many as the pageboy had seen, then they would surely die in confrontation. When the head of the guard told this to the Queen of Hearts, she ordered his head to be chopped off and asked the new head of the guard if he thought they should surrender as well; he stuttered a negative and went to assemble the guard, and notify the army.

Within a short hour the entire Queen's guard and army were assembled outside of the castle walls, to face off the coming army, when it stopped barely a good five hundred feet away. Then they realized that something was approaching them, quickly, from only about fifty feet away, something carrying an olive branch. It came closer and they realized it was a young, blonde, woman in armor who carried the branch, and rode a ferocious bird to them. When they were within ten feet, the bird stopped, the woman got off, still holding the olive branch, came forward another five feet, and then curtsied to them.

"I am Princess of Hearts Alice Mary Elizabeth Heart, I would like to discuss a chance for peace between the rebel forces and your queen, please." and from the collar of the armor, out emerged a creature of legend, the jubileedee.

*_Twenty Minutes Before_*

"And I refuse to go into outright _war_ with my own _mother_ when there is _still _a chance to settle this peacefully." Alice vehemently argued with Mathis.

"And _I_ am saying that we have tried that more times than I care to count, and have _failed_ each time." Mathis retaliated, "What makes you think that _you_, can succeed where even you father has failed?"

"Because, I am my mother's daughter." Alice replied.

Mathis stared hard at Alice for a good while, before sighing and saying, "Fine, but on one condition." and Alice couldn't help but to smile.

*_Forty Minutes Later*_

After much arguing with the head of the guard, who refused to believe that Alice was who she claimed to be, and a comparison with old photos of the Princess when she was young, as well as those of the Queen at Alice's current age, she was finally allowed an audience with her.

The Bandersnatch Princess's guard, who had allowed her to ride him to the castle, was forced to wait outside for her, as well as be manacled; he did not bother to tell the guards that the restraints they placed on him were really of no use against his powerful jaw and strong legs.

The head of the guard guided Alice through a dizzying maze of corridors full of twists, turns, and far too many stairs, before they arrived at a grand set of doors. Where the head of the guard knocked on them and they opened slowly, revealing the throne room, at the end of the long carpet, there were two thrones, the vacant one of the king, and the occupied queen's throne. As the guard walked Alice down towards the queen, she became more and more unsure of her plan; of course she, Amarissa, and Garithinias had gone over the plan more than twelve dozen times in just one day, but there were still errors that they could not account for, like the one that Alice saw when she finally approached the queen.

The queen rose from her throne and seemed to glide down the small set of steps towards Alice, "Oh, my dear, sweet Alice, now why is it you are leading a revolution against your own mother?" she asked, getting close enough to Alice to place a hand on her shoulder.

Alice glared at the hand on her shoulder, and then back at the woman in front of her, "You are not my mother." she replied resolutely.

The woman's eyebrows scrunched together, in the same way that her own mother's did, "Why, Alice, you can't even recognize your own mother? Of course, I am your mother."

"No, you are not my mother." Alice repeated, "Where is she, Aunt Gwenivere?"

The woman's false smile quickly morphed into an true and devious one, "My, my, your mother's smarts." with a quick wave of her hand, the guard was thrown against the wall, where he slid down into a crumpled and unmoving heap, "Which means you certainly are not smart enough to get rid of me."

Gwenivere lifted her hand to attack her niece when her eyes suddenly widened with slight surprise, for there was the bandersnatch guard gripping her arm in a bloody vice with his too sharp teeth.

"Oh, I recognize you, I killed your wife and children personally, didn't I?" she asked, not at all seeming to register any pain and instead grinning madly, "Oh, don't worry, their wails of pain were beautiful music." More blood seeped out of the wound as he bit down harder on the mad woman's arm, and she just laughed daintily as her red dress was stained maroon, and then turned to Alice, her blue eyes suddenly shining brightly and Alice was slowly becoming hypnotized by them.

The trance was broken when Alice was knocked down by someone, there in her previous place stood Cat, the one condition that Mathis had set for her; Dack, for whatever reason, had not given the rebel forces his reason for suddenly abandoning the Wonderland queendom, and so no one knew of their relationship, yet anyway.

"Oh, a Cat, then you must know that magic doesn't work on you or those two creatures in your army." Gwenivere told him, staring with her shining eyes into Cat's own glaring ones, then she suddenly shouted, using her magic to send the message through the whole castle, "Attack the army, attack them now, or it'll be off with all of your heads!"

Alice gripped the necklace on her neck, hoping the warning would reach the Jabberwocky King in time.

"Oh, calling the Jabberwockies are you? Ooh, sounds like the grass will be stained red with the blood of my sister's army." Gwenivere gushed with excitement.

"Alice, go find your mother, she should be in the underground dungeons, just keep going down, bandersnatch, you go with her, and I will take care of Gwenivere." Cat told them, refusing to move his glare from the mad, blonde woman.

Alice reluctantly nodded, and the bandersnatch looked at Cat with a hard stare, as though he hated the fact that he would not be able to avenge his family, but instead quickly let go of Gwenivere's arm, picked up Alice and escaped the room before the fight could start.

He dashed through the halls, finding any stairs that led down, as Alice instead worried over Cat's safety in a fight against her aunt. He might be strong and unaffected by her magic, but she was mad and could apparently feel no pain; those could be strong advantages against him.

"Although your worry is not without reason, I do believe that he will be able to hold his own against her." the bandersnatch told Alice, as he followed the path that they first took to get to the throne room.

"I do not worry about that, I only wish for him to be safe." she replied.

"Yes, that is the natural wish of a lover." Alice looked at him in surprise, "Oh please, while your fellow humans might be so daft as to be able to completely miss such a thing, anyone else would see it from across the country." she could just _hear_ the smirk in his voice.

Alice shook her head as the bandersnatch descended yet another set of stairs, down into a dark and dreary looking place, where the walls were of hard earth and the stairs seemed to be rarely used. One could feel the ominous aura, dripping off the wet walls, the misery of the place echoed off the rock like a whisper at night in the Kukubura Mountains. "I suppose we are going the right way." Alice commented.

"Yes, we are." he replied, seeming to slow down as he finally reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked about himself with a wary eye, there was only a small room, just as foreboding as the stairs were, and with only a large door of that strong green material that Alice could recall from the trial, so many years ago.

"My mother is in there." Alice announced as she dismounted the bandersnatch; she moved to walk towards the door, only for the bandersnatch to grab a gentle hold of her dress with his mouth.

He let go of her to ask, "Are you sure that it is safe, there could be some trap?"

"But my mother is in there, I _must_ go in."

The bandersnatch looked at her, trying to see if there was any doubt in her face, and replied, "I must walk across first, to make sure it is safe for you, and you must follow in my _exact_ steps, do you understand?"

"Yes, thank you so much for everything that you have done for me."

"Do not thank me yet, we are still too easily in danger." he told her as he began to carefully cross to the door, Alice quick on his heels; they made it to the door without incident, and the bandersnatch turned to look at Alice, he nodded his head as he said, "Now, it should be safe."

Alice reached for the door handle, pulling hard on it and expecting the door to swing open, but instead it remained stuck, she pulled and pulled at the door until her arms tired too much to try anymore.

The bandersnatch stared at the door with a curious glance while Alice tried to gain her breath, he grabbed the door handle, and instead of pulling like Alice had, he simply pushed, making the door open only too easily and Alice to glare lightly at him before rushing into the room.

She was extremely surprised at what she saw, a room that might have once, long ago, been a magnificent room, but its original occupant must have had many tantrums, because it was instead, almost completely destroyed by someone with great force, but there on the bed, with her head in her hands, was Alice's mother.

"Mother!"

Genevieve looked up as Alice threw herself into her mother's arms, and began to cry as she fiercely hugged her back, "Alice, oh thank goodness you're safe."

"Why is my aunt pretending to be you?"

"I don't know, when I came down to visit her, she ended up locking me in here and didn't say anything to me." Genevieve sadly shook her head, "Normally her magic doesn't work on me, since I am her twin, but something was different today."

The bandersnatch suddenly came forward, bowing to the queen before telling the blondes, "Though I do not mean to intrude upon this reunion, we must get back soon; after seeing this room and feeling everything here, I am not so sure Cat will be able to hold his own against your sister."

"Cat? One of the Cats is fighting Gwenivere?" Alice's mother looked a bit frightened by this news, "Then we certainly must hurry."

The royals climbed onto the bandersnatch's back as quickly as they could, and since he already knew the way up to the throne room, he was able to get there in good time, even for a bandersnatch.

There they saw the end of the heated battle, just as the victor stood proud and the defeated fell.


	35. After the Battle

A/N: I was originally going to put this out on Friday, but got distracted, and I considered putting it out on Saturday, but after getting up at about 6:30-7:00 AM and not getting home until about 2:30 AM, I decided against it. I had to go to San Antonio for a football game, which is four hours away, and _twice_ a bus broke down, first time on the way there, it was the bus I was on and we had to split up and get on the other band buses, then before we left to go home, the football players' their bus broke down, so they stole the cheerleaders' bus, forcing the cheerleaders to get on our bus, it was so awkward, I had one of them sitting next to me, and it was just awkward in the way that it's always awkward when you sit next to someone you totally do not know. On the bright side, I finished the book I got the day before on the bus ride over, but on the bus ride back, it was too dark for me to read my Harry Potter book, so I'm still only on page three hundred fifty something, even though I'd really wanted to read another one or two hundred pages, oh well, I'll live somehow.

Now, to the thanking of people who had reviewed/favorited/alerted: Evy Sevin, is a newcomer to the story apparently, he has favorited and alerted the story, as well as reviewed; of Jhinra reviewed, still plotting her nefarious plot against myself and PS; not to worry PS, Jhinra is losing her control over fanfiction, because I saw your review this time around, oh also, I _love_ writing cliffhangers, how did you not already realize this? Thank you people for your reviews!

Don't forget, you still have all of this week to send in questions for the Q&A on Saturday!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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Cat breathed heavily, feeling blood seep out of his wounds, sliding up his throat and pushing to make it out of his lips; he swallowed it down, nearly choking himself on his numb tongue in the process. His eyesight was finally starting to go hazy, he had lost far too much blood in the battle against Gwenivere, and he was able to take one last look at the limp body of the Queen's twin and smirked as the blood finally made its way out.

He barely made out the Queen's shout for help and Alice's scream of his name before falling into oblivion.

Alice quickly rose from her seat; rapidly wiping the tears from her eyes as Hare and numerous other healers, with and without magic, exited the castle hospital ward. She rushed up to him, trying to see Cat, wherever he was in that room, but was pushed back by Hare. He shook his head while glancing over at the other healers, before pulling the princess off to a more secluded part of the hall.

"He was very badly injured." he began.

"I know that Hare, I, I was there, I saw him, OK?" she told him in a shaky voice.

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just, the wounds were inflicted with _magic_, and I don't mean some, low level beginner magic, this is, it was Dark Magic, that's, it's a very powerful magic that is strengthened even more by hatred, rage, and anger; we, we've done all we can, it all depends on Cat right now, I'm sorry." Hare was about to put a hand on Alice's shoulder, but she walked straight past him and into the hospital ward.

She held her breath when she saw what was there; most of the beds were in use, soldiers and rebels hurt in the intense battle that had taken place, the call to cease arms had not taken long to spread, Amarissa and Garithinias had done their jobs well and prevented a huge number of casualties by convincing a number of the unsure rebels to join their cause. Amarissa, had, just as planned, sneaked her way into the battle field and played a huge role in getting the fighting to stop.

Alice began walking, looking among the sparsely used beds for Cat, until an intern healer saw her, and assuming she was another random young woman looking for her lover, tried to push her out of the hospital ward.

"Alice, there you are!"

The intern stepped aside as Garithinas and Amarissa both ran up to her, paling as he quickly realized who she was and what he had just tried to do, he quickly began to beg for forgiveness, but Alice was quick to tell him that there really was no problem at all.

The intern left and Alice was quick to notice that there was indeed a problem, the Black Knight was nowhere nearby following after his charge.

"Where's Nal'rium?" she asked Garithinias, who's face went blank for a moment before brightening up as he changed the topic.

"You probably want to see Cat, come on let's go." he replied, motioning them elsewhere.

Alice was slow to follow him, hoping the abrupt change in topic didn't mean what she thought it might.

"He was killed protecting Garithinias, and of course Garithinias is about ready to kill himself over it, I haven't left him alone since I found out." Amarissa explained, confirming Alice's sad expectations, "Don't try to comfort him, he might not be exactly like the rest of the Black family, but he still doesn't like the idea of showing sadness at someone's death."

Alice nodded, "But, shouldn't we do _something_? I don't know, hold a memorial service, not just for Nal'rium, but for anyone who was killed in this battle?"

"While that will appease many of our people, it won't appease Garithinias, in the Fairchess culture, just dying on the battlefield is like an entire funeral procession, and his family will finally be a bit _happy_ with Nal'rium because he truly fulfilled his duty, he protected the heir until his dying breath, that's all a Black Knight is supposed to do."

"Then what can we do for him, he doesn't want to be comforted, he doesn't like funerals, what _can _we do?" Alice asked.

"Just be here I guess, nothing much else we cando."

"Alice," the girls both turned to look at the man they had just been speaking about, "I assumed you would like to go and see Cat, but the healers said he can't see anyone right now, so what about your father?" he suggested.

"Oh yes, I heard he fell unconscious during the battle, do either of you know why?" she asked them.

"I am sorry, but no, we don't know, I _do_ know where he is being kept though, and that your mother is already there."

"Then please show me the way, Garithinias."

The two girls followed after the Black Prince as he led them down the healing ward and through a set of large doors to a hallway and down to another set of doors that he opened to reveal her mother seated next to a bed where her father was lying with his eyes closed.

"Mother?" she asked, stepping up to her, the blonde woman looked up at her daughter and smiled sadly at her, before getting up and hugging her tightly.

"He was under Gwenivere's spell for so long, they don't know if he can get out of it, there are many others like him right now. But none of them were under her control for as long as he was." she sighed and dropped her head into her hands.

Alice held her mother's shoulder tightly, silence enveloped the group, but the steps of another person interrupted the morose moment, everyone turned to look at the person, seeing Lawrence approaching them.

"Hello ... good to ... see you all ... alive." he commented, smoke drifting about him like a cloak, "You ..." he glanced over at Genivieve, "stay here ... and you ..." he looked at Alice, "shall see ... the Cheshire Cat ... forget what ... anyone tells you ... you _must ... _see him." then he turned to Garithinias, Lawrence swiped a thumb across his lips, a black stain appeared there; he pulled out a handkerchief, wiping the substance there, "I'll talk ... to you ... about _this_ ... when I know ... more." finally he turned to Amarissa, "See ... to your sister ... she heard wrong ... and thinks ... you are hurt ... she is ... ready to kill ... someone to ... find you." he then looked at his still audience, "Get ... get to where ... I told you."

Everyone but Garithinias and Genivieve rushed off to some other location, Amarissa to calm her sister, and Alice to see her lover.

Alice rushed down the hall, only to realize she had no clue where she was heading, this was quickly remedied by the jubileedee who appeared to be trying to pull her a certain direction. She was quick to follow the creature's directions, she vaguely wondered where he had gone off to, in the rush to get ready for battle, she hadn't brought him with her, to avoid his getting hurt in the crossfire, how he ended up in the castle from the rebel base she'd never know, but wouldn't question anyway.

The path the creature sent her on was void of any living creatures beyond them and the door she entered seemed to be into a bathroom, but the other door in the bathroom led into a room where she found Cat on the only bed.

She ran up to him quickly, falling next to his bed and holding onto his hanging hand; he was heavily bandaged, his chest and face almost entirely covered, and if Alice bothered to raise her head enough, than she would notice his other arm was completely missing.

She had her head down, trying to keep from sobbing outright, when she heard a faint grunt and looked up at Cat. His one visible eye was squinting at her through the light from a window behind her, and she would have thrown herself onto him to hug him if it weren't for the fact that she knew she might crush his ribs even more.

"Cat, oh Cat, thank the Gods you're alive." she started to cry, "I-I, when I saw you, and there was so much blood, and then Hare, he said, I was just so." her tears refused to allow her to form a complete sentence, "I'm just-" she decided to instead forego words and kiss Cat, the kiss was interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

The two looked up to see a slightly embarrassed Hare and a few surprised healers looking at them, Hare turned back to the healers and pushed them, as well as himself, out of the room, giving the lovers some privacy.

"I suppose that our cover might finally be blown." Alice said, making Cat chuckle slightly, but when she looked at his face, there was a slight grimace there instead, "Oh dear, you really do hurt right now, I should leave, shouldn't I, yes I'll leave right away, allow you to get some proper rest." Alice stood to leave but was stopped.

"No." the raspy voice told her, she looked down at Cat to see him glaring at her for trying to leave, "Don't leave yet." she could see a spot of red appearing on the bandages around his neck.

"Cat, you shouldn't talk, you're hurting yourself."

"If you stay, then I won't talk." he replied, deciding that for defeating the Devil incarnate he should be allowed to be selfish for once in his life.

"Alright, just please, I want you to get better." she told him, petting his ear, which she noticed was now missing a good size of it; Cat nodded, "Let me get one of the healers to look at your throat, please." again he nodded, allowing Alice to grab Hare, who was still outside the door, so that he could see to Cat's self inflicted wound.

Yes, now that the battle was over, they could all see to their own wounds.


	36. Something Borrowed, Something New

A/N: Sorry, I meant to publish this the other day, but I had an appointment at the psychologist, my mom was worried about my tendency to isolate myself, but after listening to my mother explain that she knew I was about as normal as a regular kid without Asperger's and that she knew that the appointment was really more for her to feel that she didn't have to worry so much about me, the psychologist told her that she had 'overly-concerned-motheritis' (yes, he made that up) and that the next appointment should be scheduled for her. He was a cool, old dude, but he told us that I really don't need to see him again unless I really want to. Anyway, enough of my life, I'm going to update the next chapter tomorrow, and then I'll update the last one and the Q&A on Saturday(or Sunday depending on the football game), so this is going to end fairly soon, and then I'll get too _really_ focusing on the spin-off, I like how it's going so far, it's going to be quite different from this one.

Now, I need to thank everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted: Jhinra reviewed as always, and is still _trying_ to fulfill her evil plot to take over; xXxbLuEmOoN09xXx reviewed as well, and no, I'm not related to Lewis Carroll (though I could be his reincarnation); jhgfdsa95 added this story to their favorites, that's pretty awesome of you dude.

Don't forget everyone, there is still time to send in any and all questions for the Q&A on Saturday, so send them all in!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

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Alice took a deep breath, trying to calm her heart that was beating far too fast for it to _possibly_ be to _any_ degree of healthy, as she tried to fix an imaginary problem with her hair

"You look great, so stop trying to fix your hair; you're just going to end up making it look bad."

She turned and glared at Amarissa, who was sitting upside down on one of the lounge chairs in the room and examining a vase of flowers.

"Amarissa, please be quiet, tonight is _very _important." Alice replied, looking down at her dress and wondering again if it was too much.

"She's right you know ... tonight ... he plans to propose." the two girls turned to see Lawrence leaning casually against the door to the room, where he certainly had not been a moment before.

"It is _still_ so creepy how you do that." the now seventeen year old remarked, picking at the chipping black polish on her nails, showing off the deep blue underneath. She had been privy to the information of Lawrence being Alice's Butterfly, since shortly after the war.

"Quiet ... child." Amarissa poked her tongue out at him, getting a puff of smoke sent into her face.

"Would the both of you stop acting like children?" Alice asked them, hating how they seemed incapable of being in the same room as the other.

"Fine ... just tell _her_ ... to behave." Lawrence said, gesturing at Amarissa, earning a glare from her, to which he replied with a smirk. Alice rolled her eyes at his teasing of the volatile teen; he had admitted once to Alice that he liked Amarissa, but would wait until she was older before doing anything about it, besides, he needed to figure out a way to make a relationship between them work, what with his far slower aging and all.

"Jerk." Amarissa retorted, before deciding that his teasing deserved her stomping out of the room as well.

"You know, you'd think she might have realized you like her already, what with how much like a little boy you act." Alice remarked, Lawrence raised a slender brow, "Well, most little boys, they tease the girl they like, so that she just thinks he's being mean instead."

"You humans make no ... sense." he then looked at her seriously, "He _is_ going to ... propose tonight ... just so you know."

"But, you said you can't account for variables, what if he just suddenly changes his mind?" Alice replied, earning a certain look from the clairvoyant Butterfly that clearly said he thought she was being stupid, "Ok, I'm just, I'm just really nervous, ok."

"So I noticed ... you will be fine ... you look fine ... truthfully ... he wouldn't care ... even if you didn't." he told her, "Now go ... or you'll be late."

She dashed out the door, hurrying to her date with Cat, while Lawrence smirked and wondered where Amarissa had gone at.

Alice looked up at Cat, laughing at the joke he had just made and trying not to choke on her drink in the process. He had arranged a romantic dinner for them on one of the balconies of the castle.

"I see the new updates for the arm are very efficient." she stated, gesturing slightly to his left arm.

He looked at it as he raised his left green arm, "Yes, the new material is highly effective in responding quickly to the messages sent by the neurons, it's almost like it was never missing." he replied, smiling slightly at her.

Alice smiled a bit sadly, remembering how he lost the arm in that battle three years ago, Cat placed his other hand on her shoulder.

"Alice, please, you don't have to feel like that, I've told you not to for three years, and for how many more do I have to tell you that?" he asked, smirking at her.

She laughed a little, "Oh, I don't know, only about a few hundred dozen more."

He smirked, before suddenly standing and offering his hand to her, making her raise a single brow, "Care to dance?"

She laughed again, "You know, there's no music playing, don't you?" she told him before allowing him to pull her up and into his arms, where he swayed her back and forth.

"What do we need music for?" he asked back, dipping her carefully, "We've never needed it before."

"True." she replied, smiling as he pulled her back up and swung her out, going down to one knee as he did so.

"Alice-" he began.

"Yes." she answered before he could properly ask.

"I didn't even-"

"I already know, and yes, Cheshire Cat, I am far more than happy to marry you." she interrupted again, throwing her arms around him as he moved to stand again.

"Haha, couldn't even wait for me to pull out the ring, could you?" he asked, sliding said ring onto her finger.

"No, I couldn't." she answered with a little peck to her fiancé's lips.


	37. It's a

A/N: Ok, today we have no football game, although tomorrow I do, and call time is at four, so an update tomorrow depends on whether or not I wake up early enough. Also, I saw Deathly Hallows last night! I was a bit disappointed, namely because I had just finished reading that part of the book and was able to note that there were a lot of things that they didn't put in there and I was a bit upset they didn't put them in there, but overall it's a pretty good movie I got to say. So yeah, this morning, I was running on three and a half hours of sleep, and no food or water for the first half of my school day, then I had lunch, didn't finish everything, and took a math test, I somehow got a 78, which was a lot higher than what I was expecting.

Anywho, time to thank reviewers/favoriters/alerters: Jhinra, of course reviewed, and was not alone, xXxbLuEmOoN09xXx also sent me a PM, and those were the only two, I only updated yesterday so I'm not surprised by the minimal amount of response.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Cat cringed as he listened to the screams coming from inside the healing ward; he found he couldn't stop himself from feeling eternally grateful for the fact that the healers forced him outside of the ward when his wife's contractions began. He continued to pace heavily in front of the door, this side to that, to and fro; the thirty one year old man's nerves were shot as he waited, then it all went silent behind the door, before he heard a wailing sound, and a few minutes later, he heard another. The healers made him wait a few more minutes before allowing him into the room to see his wife and newborn children.

They directed him to her bed, where she was holding two little bundles of blankets close to her chest, and then they left the husband and wife to themselves.

"Hey." he said quietly as he walked up next to her, caressing her cheek with one hand, "You look beautiful." he told her, meaning it with every fiber of his being.

"Oh yes, covered in sweat like I am?" she asked, laughing weakly, "Come on, look at them." she told him, moving the bundles so he could see the children, "Boy and a girl." she told him, lifting first the left and then the right bundle.

He gazed at the two gorgeous creatures his wife held in her arms, brushing their soft little cheeks with a single finger and finding himself more and more amazed by the idea that he had helped in making those two miracles of life.

"How do we know, if they're..." she let the question hang in the air, knowing he knew what was on her mind.

"Well, now that they've been out long enough, the ears should be there." he answered, lifting the blankets off the heads of his newborn children.

He stopped as he clearly looked at them, his wife looked down at the children she just gave birth to and stopped for a minute, "Is that, normal?" she asked, looking at the little girl.

"No, no it's not." Cat answered, looking at his daughter's Cat ears, finding them to be white with black dots, but no brown, so she couldn't be a Calico, and there seemed to be some sort of black birth mark around one of her eyes, making it look like she might have a black eye, or more appropriately, a spot; "I'll need to talk to White and Black about this." he told his wife.

"You don't think, they'll _both_ die, do you?"

"Of course not ... this is the end ... of the curse."

Cat and Alice both stopped and looked over at Lawrence who had just entered the room, lounging comfortably on the bed next to Alice's.

"The curse that was cast ... on your kind all of ... those years ago ... it's finally ... over." he explained, "The laws will still not ... apply." he answered, but then seemed to consider something, "At least not ... most of them." and he merely got up and left the couple with their new children, explaining everything and nothing.

"I swear, he's getting more and more cryptic each day, it's actually _really_ annoying." Alice stated, nearly making her husband laugh out loud at the fact that they received such news from a man older than either of them could fathom, and she had to remark on something like that, "What? I can't help that it _is_ really annoying."

"It's nothing, it's nothing, Alice." he replied kissing his wife's forehead.

Alice just smiled and she couldn't help but wonder what Gods had smiled on her that fateful day when she was fourteen and she followed a certain, MIA, White Rabbit, down the rabbit hole under her bed.


	38. Elsewhere

A/N: Well, this is the last _actual_ chapter of _Alice from Wonderland_, it's been a long year, filled with many late updates, late nights of writing, and a _few_ on time updates, I have to say I'm glad with the finished product overall, it's one of the stories that I've written(of all of them, those that have seen the light and the others) that I feel has met my expectations(which are fairly high, mind you) and I'm glad that so many of you have enjoyed this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it, thank you everybody.

Wow, this is going to be one of the last time I get to do this for the story(still going to do this for the Q&A and oneshot chapters), thank you all alerters/reviewers/favoriters: we had considerably less response today, it's only been one night, so the only person to thank is ImACookieMonster who sent a message, that's the only person.

Don't forget t**here's _still_ time for you to send in questions for the Q&A if you want to**, I won't put that up until I get back from the football game tonight, which should be around ten or eleven.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

_**WARNING!: The following chapter is a bit **_**graphic**_**, if you like happy endings, then please do not read this chapter, that is all.**_

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_Sister knocked at the door to Alice's room, but still received no answer, though she had to have been knocking for the past _hour_, if not _more_, so she rushed down to Father to get the key, to see if maybe Alice had fallen asleep and was too deep in a dream to hear them._

_She was walking down the stairs, when just a slight glance outside the window made her heart stop cold, before it suddenly began to beat furiously like a hummingbird in a too small cage. She ignored the shouts at her to not run in the house from a confused Mother and Father, who followed their eldest daughter out to the front lawn, where Mother let out a shriek at the sight before her._

_There on the grass, in a horrid heap on the ground, was their youngest daughter, Alice; limbs bending the wrong way, eyes staring glassily at the sky, not the smallest spark of life left in them, and a trickle of blood from her mouth and the cut on her head. Father knew with only one glance, that the daughter he had tried so hard to protect, to go so far as locking her in a tower, was killed by the very thing he had meant to protect her by._

_Sister on the other hand refused to believe that young Alice was dead quite yet, and tried shaking her awake, slapping the cold face in front of her when that didn't work. The young girl was in hysterics, tears staining the beautiful dress she wore, and not caring about the blood as she held the blonde girl's corpse close to her body, nearly crushing the small, broken bones with her arms._

_Mother had long since fainted and Father had already ordered one of the servants to call the coroner in town; then he set to the task of getting his daughter to let go of the stiff body. After much pleading and prying, he was able to remove his daughter from the blonde cadaver and send her to her room, which was thankfully on the first floor, but he still sent a servant to stay with her nonetheless._

_Once that was taken care of, he set about the task of getting another servant to help him with moving the body somewhere less visible, where it wouldn't send either his wife or his daughter into hysterics again._

_When that morbid task was over, he had the servants gather in the living room of the house, he glared hard at the line, when one of the newer maids suddenly burst into body wracking sobs._

_"I-I was just, I was cleaning the windows, an-and I must ha-have forgotten t-to lock them." and her sobs somehow became louder and more fierce, nearly sending her into convulsions._

_Of course, Father would see to it that the woman was appropriately punished and would never again endanger his family._

_Yes, as the man of the house, he had to make sure of his family's safety, even if he had already failed once._


	39. Q&A

A/N: Yes, I realize I was extremely late in putting up that Q&A, but I was preoccupied with other responsibilities that I had to attend to (read as: I was being a lazy teenager on Thanksgiving break), which is why I updated the Q&A _and_ the first in the series of background one shots. The one shots aren't mandatory to read, but if you want to find out all the secrets that were never explained in the story: who exactly _are_ Lawrence and Jilliana, how did Cat become a _mercenary_ at such a young age, what his first meeting with Alice like, what was that black substance on Garithinias's lips, and will the King of Hearts _ever_ wake up from his coma; you'll have to read the one shots for the answers to those questions and more.

I will after updating these two chapters, label this story as complete, although I will spastically update those one shots while working on my next story, I hope I can see some familiar faces there, whenever it decides it's finally ready to get out of the oven that is.

* * *

From Jhinra:

_Q: In terms of random violence who is worse; the queen or Fairchess?_

A: That's easy, Fairchess, the Queen is _one _woman with violent tendencies, Fairchess is an _entire kingdom_ of violent people, including the royalty.

_Q: Does Lawrence know about Alice and Cat? If so what does he think?_

A: Of course he knows about them, and he knew about them when he _first_ met Alice, the substance he smokes allows him to see premonitions of the future, so he knows _exactly_ what is going on, even before _I_ do, and yeah, he thinks they're a cute couple, and even though Jilliana refuses to admit it, they're her OTP.

_Q: Will Dack appear and make an ** out of himself again?_

A: Of course, he wouldn't be Dack if he didn't, he's also going to make an ** of himself in the spin-off, only more so. So if you don't like Dack, then you can read more of his being an ** in the spin-off, whenever it finally comes out of my brain and onto my laptop screen, that might take a while.

_Q: Would the King ever be able to think of the queen with slightly less hatred  
or would that be a sign of the apocalypse?_

A: Well, yes, he actually _was_ beginning to think differently of her for a while after they got married, but then he got possessed and that threw in a different kettle of fish.

_Q: If he let go of all the problems it would cause could Nal'rium ever love_

_Garinthias?_

A: Well, essentially, that's answered in a one of the background one shots, but sure, I'll answer it here too. Yes, Nal'rium's actually _already_ in love with Garithinias, which is why he was so harsh towards Alice about why bodyguards tried to refrain from loving their charges.

_Q: What does Amarissa think of Lawrence?_

A: Well, right now, she thinks he's a bloody annoying git and she hates him (in the way you hate all cocky bastards with whom you're actually in love), but of course, she does actually _like like _him, she just refuses to admit it.

_Q: What does Lawrence think of humans?_

A: Lawrence thinks humans are interesting, mainly with how emotional we are and how fast we age in comparison to the Lepidoptera, they age only according to the harvest of the items used to make the substance they smoke, which can last anywhere from one of our years to fifteen, and on occasion, even more.  
_  
Q: Why did he start to like Amarissa?_

A: Lawrence has always been attracted to women who are headstrong and go against the mold, in truth, that's mostly because of his sister, he's always admired her for defying their traditions, so it's not that much of a stretch for him to be attracted to women who share at least the stubbornness and bold attitude that his sister carried; Amarissa's family expects her to be a proper princess like her sister had been, and eventually become a proper wife like her sister, of course she resents this and refuses to do what they want her to, which is what attracts Lawrence to her, and the more he hung around her and Alice, the more he found himself just liking _her_ in general.  
_  
Q: Why did Cat take a romantic interest in Alice?_

A: Well, it was kind of love at first sight, I'm going to do a one shot on their first meeting, so you'll get to know firsthand what it was that made Cat so interested in Alice in the first place, and you'll also find out about the embarrassing thing that happened when they met, which _has_ been mentioned before for those of you who are thinking I don't know what I'm talking about, I just forget what chapter it's in.

From PS:

_Q: Will you continue with your odd, but fantastic turns in  
plot, or will everything run smoothely sometime soon? Personally, I think the  
best reads are the ones that can't be predicted._

A: Well of course there's still going to be a good few twists and turns, and you guys really might not like me pretty soon, what with all that I have planned for the last few chapters of this story, I _will_ say one thing, at _least_ one of the characters in this story will not be coming out the same way they came in, or maybe they will, then again, I don't think body-never mind, I'm not going to say _anything_ about it, my lips are _sealed_ on that topic.

_Q: Why is Cheshire being so weird with Alice and all that nonsense between them?_

A: Cat really just wants what he thinks is best for Alice, and he really thought that her not being in a relationship was the best for her, he saw what it did to his mother, his siblings, and himself, he doesn't want Alice to give birth to a child that she knows could kill him, or his siblings, and he doesn't want that child growing up _knowing_ that it killed its own aunt/uncle/father, he knows what a heavy burden that is.

_Q: Did Cat not die from the birth of the kit because of Alice?_

A: Well, that's a bit complicated, it's not really because of _Alice_, but because of the fact that the Cheshire Cat is actually the most magically powerful of all the Cats, so it might have just been that, and it might also have something to do with the jubileedee, though I'm not entirely sure _how _yet, although Lawrence knows, so I need to discuss this with him.

_Q: Did she somehow unconsciously help him? Since she's the princess, maybe that's  
how it works with cats and how they reproduce. What I mean is, is that by  
royalty loving a former slave race, everything is slowly returing back to  
normal because it makes up for the past.A crazy theory of it true?_

A: I cannot properly answer this question at the current time, because I fear that there might be a spoiler in the answer, so I'm just not going to say anything about this at all, next question.

_Q: If Alice was not a princess, how would all the "important ones" treat her?_

A: Well, Cat probably would have been a _lot_ meaner towards her, Hatter and Hare would have treated her about the same, only they'd have given her directions into _town_ rather than to the castle, of course, most of the Royalty, Family and servant alike, wouldn't have really given her much attention, and the rebel leaders, if they'd even still met her, would have just seen her as another member of the rebellion.

_Q: Is Lawrence addicted to that stuff? Will he die if won't smoke it?_

A: _All_ Lepidoptera are highly addicted to whatever substance it is that they smoke (I _still_ have _no clue_ what it is exactly and where to get some) and yes, he would die if he didn't smoke it, even Jilliana would die if she didn't smoke it once a week for four hours like she always does. That is why Jilliana is seen as an outcast among her kind, she is the first of her kind, and the first woman, to have _ever_ taken on what was considered a _human_, or _male_, occupation as well as to smoke so little. Whereas Lawrence, is a bit of an outcast for the _opposite_, he is the first Lepidoptera to have ever smoked that much, most Lepidoptera can talk at a regular (if a bit slow) rate, but his inability to talk at any regular rate for extended periods of time without a _long_ breath off his hookah shows how dependent he is on the stuff, although he _can_ cut back on it at any time if he wants to, it'll just be a bit painful for a while. He actually does not sleep, because of how much he smokes, although the substance does eliminate the user's need to sleep for an extended amount of time, and with how much he smokes, he will _never_ have to sleep a night in his life, so he is free to continue his addiction. Their kind equates how much you can smoke, to how much _power _you have, so while his sister is considered one of the weakest of their kind, Lawrence is easily the most powerful Lepidoptera ever, in the existence of existence.

A Few Things From the Author:

Basically only two people asked questions, which were all extremely good mind you, but I decided to throw in some tid bits here and there about certain things in the story. So if you want, read on.

Yes, basically all of the characters do kind of contribute to me how the story will go, which is why I say things like, 'I need to discuss it with Lawrence.' but I'm sure most writers do this; the characters just want to tell you things, 'Oh I wouldn't say _that_.' or like, 'No, no, I would have done _this_.' and their suggestions actually improve the story, so no, although many people say otherwise, I am not crazy, maybe a little anti-social, but not crazy.

Ok, I want to say something; I ended up writing almost forty chapters for a story that was originally going to be only ten, _at the most_. The ending was going to be _completely_ different from what is going to happen, it was originally going to end around the Trial chapter, it was going to turn out that the rumor about the Queen's daughter being missing, was only that, a rumor, she was really already married to some other kingdom's prince, and that Hatter and Hare were just being mean to Alice when they said she must be the Queen's daughter, Cat was also going to be a lot meaner and she would have run off with him at the end of the trial. Yeah, so how's that for an ending, it turns out she really isn't anyone important, people are still trying to kill her, and she runs off to be with a sociopath? Classic fairy tale ending, right?

Why did Nal'rium have to die? Truthfully, because I wanted someone to die and he was the most logical choice, it wasn't like he and Garithinias were going to have a happy ending anyway. He loved his charge and understood that showing that love would only put him in danger, which is why he explains that to Alice, the two guards both have a lot of enemies, so it only makes sense that those enemies would try to hurt them through the things they love most.

I know the end, if you read it, might have been a little upsetting, what with Alice dying and all, but that was the end I had planned from the beginning when I first made this story. Although, at first they were just going to find her seeming to be sleeping against the window, but really dead, but instead while I was writing I decided that her having fall out the window was better, I dunno, I liked that end for her more; Alice is actually the _second_ character of mine that I've ever killed, Nal'rium being the first.

What was wrong with Alice in the first and last chapters, why was she apparently _insane_? Your guess is as good as mine, I honestly had no clue when I started, and I still don't know.

What curse was Lawrence talking about, hell if I know; he doesn't bother to explain _anything_ to me, the jerk.

I'm really happy with the end result of this story, it's definitely one of the favorites I've written _by far_ and probably will be for a good long while.

Now, I am going to list all the people who helped me write this simply by encouraging me from the beginning to the last chapter with their reviews, messages, alerts, and favorites: Jhinra, PS, James Birdsong, zombiepie, joycelyn1234, Amarylis Cemetery, DeatheaterTonks, Mageblood, DancingWithTheImaginary, Kerauno, Ever-changing Eyes, StarElz, Life is all we got, Xxheartbroken54xX, VeryWithdrawn, emROARS, Gifted, RosePetal-Luminescence-Mel-Bel, woolSmynx, MADHATTERXALICE 2010, Magic After Midnight, ExaggerationElimination, Evy Sevin, xXxbLuEmOoN09xXx, and jhgfdsa95(ImACookieMonster).

And of course, mega thanks to everyone who stuck with me till the end, I couldn't do it without all of you _beautiful _readers.

YOU ALL _ROCK_!

Thanks again everyone, seriously, you're friggin' awesome.

Au revoir!


	40. The Hatter and the Hare Meet

A/N: I must warn you, Hatter _is_ teenaged boy in this, so predictably, he has rude attitude and curses several times, though given the circumstances, can you blame him? Also, if you don't already know, look up what exactly the term, 'mad as a March Hare' means, so that you aren't thinking anything bad about Hare when you start reading this, although the story does kind of explain anyway what the term means, but you might want to look it up anyway, just because you might miss it.

Anyway, thanks if you take the time to read this story!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Mark Time sighed as he sat alone at the far too long table with too many chairs for one person. The teenager looked solemnly into his cup of tea, the reflection given a sepia tint, his red hair dulled by the brown liquid. He never dared to drink his own tea of course, not after trying it for the first time, he apparently could only make horrible tasting tea, and he couldn't really cook either, only the most basic things and even those didn't taste very good. How the once spoiled young man missed having the help lavish him with delicious teas and treats that could battle on level ground with those in the Queen of Hearts' own court.

This made him wonder about something, or more accurately, _someone_, else in the Queen's court; the young Princess of Hearts whom had saved his life those few years ago. He frowned as he thought about it, why would his own _brother_ try to kill him, just for the Time Line? He sighed and shook his head, wondering what time it was, but knowing already, 3:00, tea time; it always would be, no matter what clock he looked at, it would read the same exact time. Yet he knew his control of time was greater than even a broken Pocketwatch, he still aged, he was no longer a twelve year old boy; he was getting to be a full grown man, still a teen, but not quite _just_ a teen.

He looked up the sound of rustling, not moving himself, but expecting another outlaw or lost traveler, they were the only people who used the woods as a means of travel, and he would offer them some food and a place to stay for the night, if only so that he might have someone to talk to for the first time in what was probably weeks, if not months.

Out of the bushes though, instead of a middle aged, fierce looking man, was a young boy, with brown rabbit's ears sprouting from the top of his head, he was somewhere around the age of twelve it seemed. Mark raised a brow at the sight of him, he'd never had someone so young, or innocent looking, arrive at this neck of the woods before; it was strange if nothing else.

"Hello there." he told the younger boy, taking a sip of his tea, and immediately grimacing, he automatically regretted being distracted by the boy enough to forget his horrible tea making skills.

The boy stayed true to his rabbit ears and twitched in a meek and cowardly way at Mark's 'hello'. The young boy seemed to be shaking in fear, before he dashed off through the foliage again, not waiting to see if Mark meant him harm or not.

Mark looked down at his tea and then back up at where the boy had been; he clearly needed to avoid drinking his tea, if it would make him imagine he saw rabbit-boys dash through his yard.

Mark was again at his table, looking at the food he had made, a slab of black _something_, which he couldn't even recognize; he poked it with one of the forks on the table and _swore_ it growled at him.

There was a rustle in the bushes and a soft '_thump_' making Mark look up to see what, or who, had fallen on his lawn.

It was the rabbit-boy he had seen some months ago, well, he supposed it was months, it might have been weeks or even only days; he wasn't quite sure. The boy seemed to have passed out on his lawn, so Mark just sighed, pushed his chair up, and looked back down in surprise, finding the black slab of whatever to have disappeared somewhere, leaving a black trail of ash on the table cloth that lead out of Mark's yard. He vaguely wondered how it might affect the ecosystem, but decided to otherwise ignore it, figuring some bigger and badder predator would probably eat it before it caused too much damage.

He instead walked over to the boy, poking him with his foot to see if he was even alive, the boy groaned, so Mark bent down and picked him up to carry him into the house, where he was settling him on the bed. Mark was going to pull away, when the boy pulled him down instead, more because of Mark's surprise and not his own strength. Mark was quick to pull away and cover his mouth, his eyes wide as saucers; the little brat had just _kissed_ him. He was tempted to leave the kid out on his lawn for the predators to get at, but decided to be nice and let him explain why he was being a horny little bastard in his sleep when he woke up later.

Mark slept on his couch in the main room, which was far too short, for his far too tall frame, and in the morning he went to see if the kid was awake yet. He found the little idiot thrashing about in his bed, groaning about something or other. So he grabbed the boy by his shoulders and shook him awake, the plain brown eyes widened in surprise, before gaining a sort of glazed look as he stared at Mark, who took a seat next to the boy.

"Alright, you little shit, you're going to tell me who the hell you are and why the fuck you kissed me yesterday, right now." he told him, glaring into the glassy eyes.

"Wh-what?" he asked, instead looking at Mark's lips as he licked his own.

"Name, yours, now."

"Hmm, it's, it's..." he trailed off until Mark snapped his fingers, bringing the brown eyes to his own green eyes for all of three seconds before they drifted back to his lips, "Jason." he finally replied, moving closer to Mark, who kept him back with one finger to the younger's forehead.

"What's wrong with you?"

The boy seemed confused, only comprehending that he wanted to feel the older boy's lips again.

"Why are you horny like this?" he plainly asked again.

"March." he replied, reaching towards Mark's chest, but falling just a little short and instead settling for molesting the older boy's knee.

"What does March have to do with anything?" Mark replied using his other hand to grab both of the boy's and keep him from attempting to molest whatever body parts he could reach.

"Hare." he replied, as though that explained anything at all, and decided to add something that nearly made Mark let go of the ever too eager hands he held on to, "Healing magic." but then he continued listing off other things that made little to no sense, so he was reassured that the boy was really only listing things that meant nothing.

Mark rolled his eyes and pushed the kid back on the bed, "Get some sleep." before getting out of the room, leaving the boy and his hormones alone.

Mark was making another attempt to make some tea, having just burnt the water, again, when he heard some footsteps coming down the hall, he turned his head and saw a rather disoriented and scared looking Jason, if that was indeed the rabbit-boy's name and he hadn't _just_ been spouting _only _random things.

"Ok, now that you're not an overly hormonal little shit, I'm Mark Time, that one infamous killer, or maybe you were too young to remember that, anyway what's your name, and why were you like that in the first place?" Mark asked, pouring the brackish water down the drain.

"Um, my name is, um, Jason Ears." he replied, his voice a soft and quiet thing; he kept pulling is ears down to where they reached the bottom of his chin, and staring at Mark with nervous eyes, probably hoping not to get killed.

"And you were trying to molest me because?" Mark asked, waiting for the boy to fill in the blank, he remained quiet, seeming a bit confused, "I know it's not just because I'm a handsome sociopath."

"It was March, I'm a hare." the boy replied, wondering how the older boy didn't know that.

"It's March, already?" Mark asked, surprised that he had been in the woods for so long, but sighed before asking, "And what does that have to do with anything?"

The boy's face started to turn rather red, "That is, um, it, March, is," he mumbled something quietly.

"What was that, you'll have to speak up." Mark replied.

"Marchismatingseason." He muttered quickly.

"Say it so I can understand, brat."

"March is mating season." Jason finally got out, his face turning redder than even Mark's hair.

"Ah, that certainly explains some things." he replied, before turning back to the stove to try and make some tea, again, but he realized something and turned back to Jason, "Can you cook?"

Jason scrunched his brows together in confusion, "Well, yes, but-"

"Good, make us something to eat and make me some tea, bring it to the table outside when you're done." Mark told him, pushing him towards the stove and walking outside, leaving behind a rather confused little hare who decided not to question things and maybe get killed by the older boy who was known as having attempted to kill his own brother and most likely killing his parents and just got started on cooking what he could with what there was.

Mark returned from his usual stroll around the woods just while Jason was coming out with a tray of food and looked at the table in some confusion. Mark took his usual seat at the head of the table, motioning for the hare to come forward, "Should I make more food?" he asked.

"What for?" Mark asked, watching Jason pour an appealing shade of brown liquid into his tea cup.

"Aren't there more people coming?" he replied, looking at the many other odd chairs set up around the table.

"If they are then I didn't invite them." Mark said after finally taking a sip of his tea and surprised to find that tea could _actually_ taste _good_.

"Oh, than why are there so many chairs?" he set the food in front of Mark, and began to set his own food and tea.

"Hell if I know, what is this?" he asked as he started eating, and finding the food to be absolutely delicious, far better than any living black slab of something that he had ever made.

"Um, well, you didn't really have all that much, so I made some crepes with the gooseberries and fadoodles you had, they would have spoiled otherwise." Jason replied.

"It's good." he said as he took another sip of his tea.

"Um, when should I leave?" Jason inquired, taking his seat next to Mark and beginning to eat his own food.

Mark raised one slender red brow, "Who said you were leaving?"

"What?"

"Did I stutter? I said you aren't leaving."

"You aren't planning on killing me, are you?"

"Nope, so long as you cook like this three times a day and make me tea; I can deal with an overly hormonal brat for one month out of the year." he replied making Jason look rather surprised, but he nodded his head and kept eating his food.

Mark started to wonder if he really could follow through with what he'd just promised.


	41. Death of a Soldier

A/N: Yeah, sorry, I meant to update this chapter back during Thanksgiving, but I got busy with some things going on (read: I was too effing lazy and enjoying my week off from school), on the bright side, I got an 89 on my last physics test, and I totally had _no clue_ what I was doing, how I can BS my way through these things, I have no clue, now if only it worked on my college algebra/pre-cal tests. Anyway, this is probably the _second_ most angst-filled thing I've ever written, you'll see the first in another five chapters, which again has Garithinias and Nal'rium in it; I bet you'll _never_ guess what happens in this chapter (if you really can't figure it out, than I hope you're at least pretty).

I understand that some of you (probably _most_ of you) may have been _quite_ shocked by Hare's behavior in the last chapter, but I _did_ warn you that Hare would behave extremely bizarrely. I was playing on the saying '_mad as a March hare_' where Lewis Carroll got the name for the March Hare, the saying comes from the fact that March which is when hares mate, and I assume everyone knows the saying '_they did it like rabbits_' if not, then you're still quite innocent and naive, aren't you? I thought it would be a funny situation and it's actually a bit serious, because Hatter falls in love with Hare by the time he's fourteen, and his body is a bit slow with maturing, so even if he's twenty something, his hormones are at the age of like, sixteen or eighteen, so gentlemen, imagine an extremely attractive woman, who is indeed in love with you, is throwing herself all over you, although she doesn't really know what she's doing, just what would you do (Ladies, you know we don't have as extreme hormones as the boys do)? That's what Hatter had to ask himself, and he was able to hold back his hormones.

And now, to thank the people who reviewed the first one shot and and the last chapters: Jhinra, duh, of course she's on this list; and PS also reviewed, and no, Alice didn't die in the Looking Glass, she was just dreaming the whole thing like in the first one, also, I'm glad I was able to give a quality story the whole way through, it gives me fuzzies in my heart when I hear that. :3

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review!

* * *

Garithinias, while usually a pacifist by nature, was an excellent fighter, after many years of being trained by Nal'rium, his sole protector and secret crush, of course he was, and in the heat of battle while trying to stay alive, you tend to abandon a childish notion like '_Peace on earth_.' or the '_Golden Rule_' those things that most children are taught to believe in from a very young age and as they grow they find that they are not true; you abandon those thoughts on the battlefield because it helps you live longer.

Now, while he knew he was supposed to be stopping the revolution, the Queen's forces attacking them, did not seem to _want_ to settle things peacefully, even with the four bandersnatch and numerous jabberwockies within the rebel forces.

Many of those attacking him, and his nearby comrades were a bit surprised to find that he was actually holding his own against highly trained soldiers, even a few with magic, even though he himself had none. Yes, the man knew his way around a blade only too well, having gotten a few too many scars at the hands of Nal'rium's training.

Somewhere in the back of his head he vaguely wondered where the guard had gone off to, having lost sight of him in the mass of bodies and clash of weaponry. His current opponent was pushing him to the outskirts of the fighting; this was a strong soldier with great skill, almost at level with even Nal'rium.

For all of Garithinias's thoughts of how much he lost his innocence while on the battlefield, he neglected to acknowledge the fact that others might be as _low_ as to stoop to some dirty tricks. He really should have known better, Nal'rium was _constantly_ telling him to play a bit dirty himself; still he was surprised when the soldier knocked his feet out from under him and was about to plunge his sword into Garithinias, when something else caught his attention, forcing his blade up.

He almost didn't see what happened for the spurt of blood from both of the men, but he was able to see it clearly even through the sticky substance. Nal'rium, to perform his job as he was supposed to, went to attack the soldier when he saw that his charge was about to be killed, he jumped forward as he changed his hand into a sword and killed the man. What Nal'rium hadn't expected was the sword going through his abdomen; the shifter had placed his heart there at the start of the battle, to avoid the predictable pattern of others stabbing at the left side of the chest for a fatal blow.

The soldier fell, dead as a coffin nail, to the ground; while Nal'rium fell to his knees, changing his organs to try and find some positioning of them that would allow him to live longer, before falling down complete. Garithinias crawled over to him quickly, turning the man so that he try and stop the bleeding with the strips of fabric he tore off his own clothes; the young man could feel the bile of fear rushing up his throat, choking his breath behind it.

"Don't worry, I'm going to help you, you're going to be fine." he murmured, more to himself than his guard, trying to assure himself that it was true as he pumped Nal'rium's chest, to help the blood circulate to his heart. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered why no one was attacking them, but the thought was quickly swallowed by the fear he held for his guard.

Nal'rium pushed Garithinias's hands away as his face began a strange contortion and black blood oozed out of his mouth, he coughed it out and began to speak around it, "I'm not going to live." he stated simply while gurgling through his blood, still shifting everything to try and live long enough to say what he needed to, "Do not _dare_ cry, I have, _damnit_, have taught you better than that." he was grunting and cursing from the pain.

Garithinias gained a sick fascination with watching his beloved guard's face change, going from one large brown eye to a small blue one, his forehead protruding one second and indented the next, his nose shifting from one place to another; it was a sick and gross process that he couldn't tear his eyes from. The form was finally settling into a trait-less countenance, Nal'rium grabbed at Garithinias's neck, pulling him down and kissing him viciously, leaving a black stain of blood on his lips, with a scarlet dot forming from where he seemed to have bit the boy's lip.

"Now, make sure, I didn't sacrifice this life of mine for nothing." he said, as the features of his face disappeared entirely, leaving behind a blank countenance, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, no hair, nothing, just an empty featureless shell of a figure.

Garithinias didn't cry as he was asked, instead his very being filled with rage as he launched himself into the battlefield, attacking every enemy that he could find until his sword and clothes would surely never be removed of the red.


	42. Genivieve at Seven

A/N: Here's another background one shot, this time with Genivieve and the Caterpillar, and here, some things are shown to be a bit different from how they were explained in the story, not much else to say about it, 'cept for the fact that it's pretty short. Also, I am currently working on chapter four of the spin-off, I've just been reintroducing everyone in their new positions, and I like what I have so far, a lot of the characters have completely different personalities from in here, especially Cat, Hatter, and Hare, they're not _radically_ different, but they _are_ still pretty different, and I love it :3. I'm hoping to finish writing the fourth chapter, get started on the fifth, finally have a title for the whole story and be able to add it on here before 2011, but don't hold your breath, because I still need to figure out the whole _plot_ of the story first; I know where I want it to end, but there's a lot of things that I need to finalize, like Hatter is being very difficult about his origins, that title refuses to come to me (I'm open to suggestions, just PM me or review with the suggestion), and then I need to find out how everyone can be properly introduced to the story without it seeming or too boring with so many intros; it's a long process, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

Anyway, time to thank everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted since my last update: Muirn Beatha Dan favorited the story, that's pretty awesome of her; Jhinra submitted her first ever _short_ review, I know, it's shocking, it's _not_ three paragraphs or more, but i understand, you were pressed for time, it's cool. That's everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted, thanks people!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Genivieve looked across the courtyard, where Gwenivere was receiving etiquette lessons, and at the time was practicing keeping her back straight. She walked gracefully across the tile to her teacher, the books set on her head not moving in the slightest.

Genivieve, who was between classes and just wandering, moved across to the hallway where no one was, and as the young seven year old walked, she became conscious of the teenager at her side.

"Hello there ... Geni." the teen, said, using her father's pet name for her; there was a certain air about him, that was not only from his hookah; he also was obviously not from Wonderland, if his strange garb were anything to go by, he wore a turban for heaven's sake, but for all intents and purposes, he looked like any regular eighteen year old boy smoking a hookah.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I am Lawrence Vanchre ... the Caterpillar." he replied in between breaths of his hookah.

"Caterpillar, what's that?" she asked, feeling strangely comfortable in the teen's presence, although she knew that her guards, where ever they were, were supposed to keep random people out of the castle.

"The Lepidoptera are a race ... dedicated to serving ... the Royal Family ... we advise and help them ... when they don't want ... to admit they need It." he explained between puffs of his hookah.

"So, does Gwenivere have one too?" she asked, knowing her sister was the heir and so she _must_ have one, it only made sense.

"No, we only appear to ... the True Heir." he replied, smoke spilling from his lips.

"The True Heir?" she was unfamiliar with the term, but she _did_ know that Gwenivere was the rightful heir to the throne of Wonderland.

"Yes, though no one ... quite knows it ... your sister ... is not the heir."

"But she has the Magic, only the Royal child with Magic can be the heir if there is more than one Royal child."

"That is what we allow ... you to think ... really, you will see ... who shall become … the True Heir." he explained.

"But Gweniviere has even seen the jubileedee, everyone _saw_ it go up to her." she replied, refusing to believe what the stranger claimed was true.

"Oh yes ... you people have that myth ... a bit confused ... the woman who led ... your people here ... was not the woman destined ... to be Queen ... although she was ... appointed as one of ... the Queen's advisors ... the jubileedee only appears to ... those who will _change_ Wonderland ... for good or for worse." he elaborated, before looking over at something, "I must go now ... au revoir ... Geni."

A strange window appeared out of nowhere on the wall, and the boy opened it up, a thick cloud of smoke, smelling just like the hookah he was smoking himself, emitted from the window, and he climbed into the smoke, disappearing into it as the window faded quickly.

Genivieve wondered about only two things, what the Caterpillar mean by his words and just what language he said his goodbye in.


	43. In the Morning

A/N: Hallelujah! I'm finally on holiday break, thank _gah_, I swear, I wouldn't have been able to stand another day of school, and now I can focus more on writing since I've got no homework or projects to do during the break, am I lucky or what? I think I'm making some good progress on the spin-off, still no title and still working on the same chapter, but I think Hatter and I are getting closer to an agreement about his origins, we just need to make a few more agreements and compromises and that _should_ be it. I really love writing Cat, he's so, well, selfish, because his situation in the real world is completely different from his situation in Wonderland, so he's able to be more _free_ with his feelings, and the same goes for Hatter as well, I _love_ writing the both of them so much because of that, it's _awesome_! You also finally find out some more about how Hare and Aaron (the White Rabbit, in case you forgot) are related and how they react to each other, and you actually get to know more about their families too. I'm really eager to get the story out, but it's still in the oven, I have no idea how long it will be and only a vague one as to where and how it will end, so just give me a little more time to plan it all out. Hopefully it'll be ready for release in the year 2011.

Jhinra was the only one who reviewed, no favoriters/alerters, not that surprising, the series _is_ complete after all.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

She stared at her husband's sleeping face, all dark skin and black hair, adorned with a set of pink and purple striped cat ears; she reached a hand out to caress his face, running pale fingers over his closed eyes, knowing that murky yellow lied underneath.

"Can I open my eyes already, or should I just pretend to sleep for a little longer?" his deep voice asked, making his wife laugh softly, so as not to risk waking the children in the room over on the peaceful Sunday morning.

"Alright, you can open them." she reluctantly replied, pouting in jest.

He opened his eyes, the yellow shining in the slices of sunlight that slipped through the bedroom curtains, "Thank you so much, my dear." he replied, giving her a quick peck on the lips.

After he moved back, she made a face, "Ew, morning breath."

"Oh, like yours smells like roondren flowers." was his retort, but he kissed her again anyway, and moved his hand down to her bulging stomach, "Oh, my wife, you are so beautiful." and he gave her another few dozen pecks.

"Even if I look like a giant blimp?" she asked, smiling at her joke.

"Hm." he looked like he was thinking about it, but his wife's small smack helped him to make up his mind with a laugh, "Hahaha, of course you are, the glow makes you gorgeous."

She smiled for a while before it slowly slid down her face, "What if, what if it's another Cat, then what will we do, Chess?" she asked, tears almost sprouting at her green eyes.

"Katherine, we've had five of them so far, and I know they've all been Cats and that scares you, but we just have to be hopeful, I love you, no matter what happens." and he kissed her closely.

"But Chess-"

"No Katherine, I don't care what happens, I know I've been asking so much of you, to be strong through all of this, and I know _no _woman should have to deal with this; I _love_ you _so much_, you cannot imagine just what I would do for you; if you ever want to leave, just say the word and I will let you go."

"I know Chess, I know, and you will never have to worry about that, I said until death do we part, and you're stuck with me now." she replied, about to kiss her husband, when five children came barreling into their bed, disrupting the peace of the morning and the somber mood between them.

Katherine and Chess laughed with their children, more than glad for the distraction.

"Mama, are you gonna make pannycakes to-day?" White asked, the excited six year old somehow looking at her mother with her blind, blue eyes; her twin brother, Black sat quietly next to her, allowing his, actually older, by twelve minutes no less, sister to make her demands.

"Of course my dear." her mother replied happily, and bumped noses with her sullen, nine year old son, Tabby, who turned his slightly confused stare to his fully human mother, but made no further comments, "Calico, sweetheart, would you like to help me in the kitchen?" she asked her second oldest, only eight years old.

"Of course mother." Calico answered bouncing after her mother with the young, four year old Tom in tow, for he stuck to her like a duckling to its mother.

"Come on you three, get over here!" Chess shouted, grabbing for his three children; White was the quickest to get away from her father, Black was quick to catch on to the game and laughed loudly as his father held onto him, and Tabby seemed to be a bit confused for a while until it dawned on him just what was happening.

The children laughed as their father tickled them roughly until Calico sent Tom off to get them to eat the delicious pancakes their mother and Calico had made.

Chess and Katherine laughed with their children as they shouted out names for the soon to be born baby brother or sister, if it were human anyway; the loving family had no idea that it would be one of their last happy moments together.


	44. A Caterpillar's Assignment

A/N: Haha, this is an epically _long_ one shot, five pages on Word, so I hope you have the time to read it. Anyway, I wanted to put this out yesterday, but I didn't get home until 3 AM, you know us Mexican families, saying hello and goodbye takes longer than the party, also, epically long line to get back into the US. I've also been a bit understandably distracted, what with my new iPad and all.

Now, let's get the regular stuff out of the way so you can read this epic, to those who reviewed/favorited/alerted: Tiege is awesome for favoriting; Jhinra, of course, did not break her streak of reviewing on every chapter; and we can say hello again to an old face, James Birdsong reviewed, I was pretty worried about where you'd gone off to Jimmy boy, but it's good to hear from you again.

Now, let us take a moment for holiday greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Chanukah, Feliz Navidad, Joyeux Noël, Mele Kalikimaka, Happy Whatever-else-you-celebrate, and for whatever few of you do not have a holiday to celebrate this season, I hope the year's been good to you and that the next will be better. I may or may not update next week, what with it being the New Year and all, so don't hold your breath for an update.

Anyway, if you want to find out about my holidays, than just ask me if you really want to know, for now, read the chapter!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Lawrence Vanchre, quite old by human years, but only about the age of a teen according to Lepidopteran standards, was quite powerful for his age, already limited to only eight words in one breath, most of their kind didn't get to that much of an addiction until they were in their mid-twenties, by Lepidopteran years of course.

The teen was proving to be the pride of his family, which was a welcome change from the shame they had received when his sister, Jilliana, decided she would smoke as little as possible, barely enough for her to survive, and left the Nile Valley to study law and become a lawyer. While his family refused to acknowledge Jilliana as a true Butterfly any longer, he still kept up a letter correspondence with his sister, though they had so many years between them.

The raven haired sixteen year old sighed while gazing out his bedroom window at the desert that made up the Nile Valley, he blew puffs of smoke out the window, casting shapes into the endless blue sky. He almost felt sad, remembering how his sister would point out the shapes to him and make up a story as the shapes appeared, incorporating everything seamlessly; for wanting to go into something as boring as law, her imagination was more active than even his own.

There was a knock at his door, so after a deep breath, he shouted permission to whoever was on the other side of the marble door.

"Your Highness, His Majesty requests your audience." a servant replied from outside the door.

Lawrence sighed, "Very well, where does he desire that I ... should meet him?" he asked, taking a pause to smoke and sounding far more mature than any sixteen year old should.

"He asks for you to meet him in the sunroom."

"Tell him I shall be there in a moment." he answered. Lawrence got up, readjusting the turban on his head as he grabbed a carry-able hookah to smoke on his way to the sunroom.

Once he was ready, he exited his room into the grand hallways that made up his home, traveling through the dizzying maze easily and not bothered by the sand that blew through the palace from the desert. There were a few travelers who were pale like he was, they weren't used to the heat and dust of the desert and seemed lost in the endless corridors of the maze-like palace; they seemed a bit surprised to see someone with skin as pale as theirs in this place.

True, the Lepidopteran people were normally dark skinned from a lifetime in the sun, all save for the Royal family, who were always pale, even if they spent a fraction of the time that his father did, in the sun; as though that weren't indicator enough of who was Royal and who was not, from the moment of their metamorphosis, there was the Royal mark on their wings, which obviously meant that having an affair as a Royal without _eventually_ being found out was fairly impossible.

Lawrence found himself at the sunroom quickly enough, where he knocked, a soft 'Come in.' answered him, so he pushed the door open, finding his father seated at a table with a hookah before him; the man was merely gazing out at the dunes of the land before him.

"Ah, come, join me, Lawrence." his father said, motioning at the second hose set on the table.

Lawrence placed his own hookah down on a table near the door before joining his father, "What did you call me for, Father?"

"You said ... you were having dreams ... correct?"

"Yes ... and they've been becoming clearer ... last night I dreamt that a bundlinski would ... get loose in the kitchen and you would ... get upset because dignitaries were visiting and it ... had ruined the dinner you wanted the cook ... to make for them." he replied.

"That only happened just … a few moments ago ... then it is as I supposed ... you are to be ... an Advisor."

"An Advisor, Father?" he asked, wondering if he heard correctly.

"Yes ... there are few Lepidopterans ... who are able to see ... visions so clearly as that ... they are the ones ... who are to advise ... the Queen of Wonderland ... throughout her life." his father explained, though didn't have to, "You do know that ... those dignitaries are from Wonderland ... don't you?"

"Yes ... but I did not expect them to be ... people I would have to meet with."

"Come my son ... you must meet ... your own future." he told him, rising as a servant procured another carry-able hookah for him.

Lawrence followed his father in silence, occasionally smoking his hookah as he thought of what was to come. He had heard stories about Advisors, but he had never heard of an Advisor who was of the Royal line; he had actually gotten the chance to see a picture of the last Advisor before he left for Wonderland to work with the Queen, he had been dressed in what were essentially rags and stood in front of an elaborate window that he had procured with the new found abilities that all Advisors found themselves with after finding what they were. Lawrence had thought all Advisors were to be commoners, not from the Royal line, he had always supposed he would become the next Sultan once his father died, but this certainly changed things now.

"Lawrence ... pay attention." his father reprimanded, glaring lightly at his son for being so distracted.

"I apologize ... Father."

He was led into the room, already filled with the stifling smoke of a grand hookah in the center of the room, surrounded by the plush pillows that Lawrence was accustomed to sitting in; although the dignitaries did not seem to be quite as acclimated, they instead floundered a bit on the pillows, trying to find a comfortable position.

"Hello." he said to them, bowing deeply to them before taking his seat on a pillow at his father's left side.

"So, you are, um, Lawrence, correct?" one of the pale skinned men asked, he seemed to find breathing through the smoke difficult and had a light sheen of sweat on his face, not quite used to the temperature in Nile Valley, which was much hotter than the hottest temperature in all of Wonderland.

"Yes ... that is correct." Lawrence replied, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise, I am Professor Harold Grawner, these are my associates, Miss Kaleigh Yeats, and Mr. Jayce Harbringer." he said, introducing the woman and man who had traveled with him. The woman seemed to be a delicate thing, like his own sister had always seemed, and the other man looked to be a bodyguard, he had a sword in a holster on his side and a strange looking invention of some green material; perhaps it was one of those new "_shooters_" that he had heard one of the generals of his father's army talking about once.

The woman decided to take over the conversation from there, which made his father a bit annoyed by her boldness, although no one else could see it, and Lawrence was a bit saddened by the woman's bold action, his sister had always done those sort of things that made their father upset, and he truly did miss her, though it had barely been a year, in their time anyway.

"Your Highness, I understand that you are the one that has been having the visions, correct?"

"Yes ... Miss Yeats ... and please, call me Lawrence." he replied, deciding that the woman did indeed remind him of his sister and that he liked her; although his father showed a bit of a frown at his son's familiarity with the woman.

Kaleigh instead smiled, "Well then Lawrence, I expect _you_ to call me Kaleigh instead." she earned an eye roll from Mr. Harbringer and a scoff from Professor Grawner, although she ignored the both of them, "You see, the Queen has only _just_ learned that she is with child, so we are quite glad that we know you are going to be the Advisor already, if you want, you can move into the castle already and get to know everyone there and be there for when the child is born."

Lawrence was about to reply that he would very much like that, since he had never before been given the chance to travel outside of Nile Valley, but his father answered for him, "My son will be able ... to travel by use of ... the windows by then ... will he not?"

"Well, yes, he should be able to so long as he practices his abilities." Professor Grawner answered.

"Then there is no reason ... for him to live there ... my son shall live here ... until the child first begins ... to need him ... that is the end of that." Lawrence glared at his father, but knew better than to object his decision, until his father decided to add something else, "I do not want him ... in the same palace as ... that _val'al'hah _for as long ... as I can spare him."

Lawrence stood up abruptly, "Father," he watched himself from saying something that he would quickly regret and instead said, "I must be excused." and he quickly exited, taking his hookah with him and puffing madly back to his room.

Once there he flopped back into his pillow by the window, fuming at his father for calling his sister such a word. _How _dare_ he even _think_ to use such a word when referring to his _own_ daughter?_

He fumed there in silence for a long time before there was a knock at the door, he didn't answer to it, but the door opened anyway, showing Kaleigh to be there, "Hey, I'm sorry if I shouldn't be here, I just thought you might need someone to talk to." she replied, "Or do you not want me here?"

"No, you may join me." he answered, gesturing at the pile of pillows before him, where she plopped down a little less than gracefully.

"Um, I'm not quite sure what happened back there, but I can easily tell that whatever your father said really upset you."

Lawrence skulked for a few minutes, before deciding that he would explain it to the woman, "My sister ... she works at the castle, doesn't she?"

"Yes, she's been studying law there under one of the best lawyers Wonderland has to offer, he says she's continuously impressed him with her talent."

"Yes ... that sounds only so much like her." he smoked quietly, thinking about what he planned to say, "Jilliana ... when she said that she wanted to be ... a lawyer ... it upset my father greatly when ... she told him ... he disowned her from the Royal family ... we are not allowed to speak of her ... though we still have a letter correspondence ... That word my father said ... _val'al'hah_ ..." he grimaced as he said it, "It is a great insult in our culture ... it means something like whore or exiled one ... it has a complicated meaning that I can't ... explain it properly." he puffed angrily on his hookah, "My father knows that that word is not ... intended for public use, it should not even ... be thought, much less said aloud."

"Oh, I'm, I'm terribly sorry, but I kind of get what you're going through." she replied, and smiled a little, "I'm glad you feel so strongly about your sister, to be honest, my own family was really annoyed when I said I wanted to, well, be a bodyguard." she explained, seeming a bit sheepish.

"Mr. Harbringer is not the bodyguard?" he asked, quite surprised by this news.

"Oh, no, sorry, I mean, Jayce is my partner, or more like, I'm _Jayce's_ partner, he's showing me the ropes; it's actually because of _him_ that I'm doing what I do now." Lawrence rose a single brow in motion that she should explain further, "Jayce and I have actually been friends since we were babies almost, he taught me how to fight and everything, and supported me against my family when I said I was going to be a bodyguard for hire." she shrugged her shoulders, "Anyway, what I mean is, it's such a good thing that you're so supportive of your sister, I mean, if I didn't have Jayce there for me, cheering me on, in his own way of course, than I probably would have given up and gone back home a _long_ time ago. So I _know _for a matter of fact that your sister appreciates all of your support, even if she doesn't know about the little things, like what happened back there; she appreciates everything, you can trust me on that."

Lawrence nodded; indeed feeling better that his anger at his father for saying what he did about Jilliana was not entirely out of line, "Thank you." he told her.

She smiled again, "No problem, kiddo, you need someone else, besides your sister to talk to, because I know there are some things that you just can't talk to her about, you can just send me a letter, or even find me at the castle when you can teleport or whatever it is you're supposed to be able to do."

"Alright, I will." he answered, rising from his seat to help her as he saw her struggle to get up from the pillows.

"Thank _you_; I honestly don't know how you people can stand to sit in all those pillows."

"We generally sit on just one." he answered, gesturing at the oversized pillow he had gotten up from that was nearly half as tall as he was.

"Right." she deadpanned, but laughed at herself nonetheless, "Well, I'll see you around, kiddo." patting his turbaned head before heading out the door to rejoin her group.

Lawrence found himself smiling as he realized he liked being called 'kiddo' much more than 'Your Highness'.


	45. Patience is a Virtue

A/N: I'd considered updating this yesterday, but decided that posting on the first day of 2011 was cooler than posting on the last day of 2010. I had a pretty good New Year's Eve, for the first time _ever_, there was less than at least twenty people at a party thrown by my family in Mexico, which was really weird at first, because there was only _ten_ of us, I'm used to parties where I hide away upstairs or inside because there's 30+ people in the house/yard/wherever. I wasn't the only one who thought it was weird, one of my cousins thought it was kind of weird too, but it was nice to have only that few people, I actually stayed in human company the entire time. Anyway, I hope you've all had a fun and _safe_ New Year's Eve; moving on, this chapter is rather short, so I apologize for that, but that's just how the chapter has to be. Unfortunately, my goal from last year to have the spin-off series ready by today, was not fulfilled, I've hit a bit of a writer's block and still have no title, hopefully I'll have it up before the month is over, but don't hold your breath.

To business, I would like to thank _everyone_ for reading/reviewing/favoriting/alerting this series, it's been a long one and I was glad to finish it in only one year and I'm glad to be able to do these extra chapters and know people will enjoy them, you're all wonderful people. Also, Jhinra would like to make it known that her reviewing streak has not ended, nor will it be ended any time soon, thanks for always reviewing Jhinra. Again, thanks to all the readers out there, I couldn't have done this without all of you!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Gwenivere Andromeda Helliatrix Heart, was actually the _most _patient, albeit, also the most _murderous_, woman you could ever meet in any world.

Oh yes, the woman had known from the time that she was quite young that there was to be an apex to her power; a day where she would be _so __**powerful**_, she could even charm her own twin sister. When she had been young, she had planned to use the day to announce that she would take over the world; of course the day was to happen long after her ascent to her rightful throne as the Queen of Wonderland.

Of course, the fact that her parents would start to doubt her capability as Queen of Wonderland and considered changing heirs to her sister, was a bit of a bother; they had to be disposed of, it was only rational, so she could ensure that the throne would safely fall into her hands. What she had not accounted for, was her own little sister to trick her into her tantrum room and lock her there, so as to save the queendom without having to kill her older sister.

Gwenivere had to admit she was almost proud, never before would she have guessed that little, kind, sweet, Genivieve would be capable of such deceit; it would have brought a tear to her eye if it weren't for _whom_ she had deceived.

So, after being locked away from the rightful throne, Gwenivere bid her time, increasing her power as she controlled people from her dungeon, even casting that husband of her sister's under her power. She had to admit, it was a smart idea of Genivieve, marry a man ready to kill her at any minute with the plan to switch with Gwenivere at some point so that he killed _her _instead. It might have worked, that is if Genivieve hadn't actually _fallen _for him and decided to try and keep him as far away from Gwenivere as possible.

Gwenivere only knew too well how to wait, after all, what were a few years in her tantrum room compared to an eternity as Empress of the _world_?


	46. A Pained Return

A/N: I apologize for being a total b*tch and only updating right now, I had a three day weekend and I was _exceptionally_ lazy this weekend, even for me; the good news though, is that I passed all my finals, so I won't have to worry about those any time soon, but the bad news is that I'm starting my next term tomorrow, and I'm going to be taking English AP, college psychology/sociology, French 4 AP, and US History AP, a friend of mine who had those same exact classes when she was a junior, warned me that I'm going to have one hell of a year, because it's supposed _really_ hard since it's all such advanced classes and you get so much work from all of them. Hopefully, my naturally brilliant brain will save me as it always does, and if not, hey, I can always cheat, haha, yeah I'm a little snot. On another note, I actually really don't like this chapter, it came out all wrong and I can't figure out how to fix it, so I apologize for the piece of cr*p you are about to read.

Anyways, thank you Jhinra for reviewing, as always!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

The twenty nine year old Garithinias was _tired_.

He was tired of his family, of the wife he was forced to take, of the kingdom he had to rule, he was tired of his own _life_, but what could he do, allow himself to be so weak as to take his own life? No, he could not do that. There was no way for him to win, he could suffer alive, or he could suffer in death, and neither option was much better than the other.

"Hello ... there."

Garithinias jumped from his desk in his personal study, surprised to see that Lawrence Vanchre, the Butterfly that was Alice's advisor, the very one that he hadn't seen in almost five years, since he had swiped his thumb on Garithinias's lips, somehow pulling off the stain of Nal'rium's blood and telling him to wait until he knew more about it. What the strange man was doing in his study was well beyond Garithinias.

"Yes ... I am here about ... _that_ thing ... I hope you still remember ... what I'm talking about." Garithinias was simply confused, making Lawrence sigh laboriously, "You have not taken ... another Black Knight ... since your last one died ... have you not?" Garithinias slowly nodded his head, and Lawrence glanced at the doors as they opened, admitting a strange sight.

It was Nal'rium, down to his minute scar in the preferred appearance of all Black Knights, a regular human with black hair, black eyes, and dark skin; the only difference between this Nal'rium and the one from five years ago, was the hair, instead of the sheared close cut that Nal'rium had always favored, this shape shifter had the traditional tail of knee length hair that all past obedient Black Knights would wear.

"He's about the closest ... you'll get to another ... Nal'rium." Lawrence took his sweet time with another smoke of his hookah, "From that speck ... of his blood ... on your lips ... I was able to get ... a good handful of his ... memories and put them in ... this one."

Garithinias finally approached the new Nal'rium, unable to stop the hand that brushed the lips that had once so long ago stained his own black with blood, he pulled away quick though, like it had burned his hand, "No." Garithinias said, glaring at the shape shifter who had not moved an inch during this; Garithinias turned his heated glare to the Butterfly, "Why did you do this?" he hissed in query.

Lawrence raised a slender brow, "Wasn't this what you wanted, to see your Knight once more?"

"In death yes, but not like this, not this fake that will only make it worse the more I see him." Garithinias said, anger bubbling quietly beneath his voice, "Take it away, never let me see that in here again, or I won't care about the treaty, I _will_ kill you."

Lawrence seemed to contemplate Garithinias's words for a short while, making little rings in the air with his smoke, before finally sighing, "So ... you choose to suffer ... when you could just ... accept everything as it is ... and move on?" he wondered what the Butterfly was trying to say, damn him and his cryptic messages, "Alright then ... I shall respect your choice ... no matter how stupid ... it really is." Lawrence motioned for the shape shifter to follow him; it looked back at Garithinias for a moment, but turned to follow after Lawrence.

Garithinias was again left behind by his guard, and still it hurt only too much.


	47. At First Sight

A/N: Yep, this has been my second week of the new semester, and yeah, it's about as hard as I suspected it would be, I still have some fourteen words to define with page-long definitions for APUSH (although I've had since Monday to do it), and I just got the scores of two of my tests back, one for English and another for APUSH, the English was an 80 or 90, and the APUSH was an 85, so that's pretty good; although right now, the 'v' on my laptop is being weird and I have to press it a few times before it works, I never knew befor_e just how many_ times I use that key, and at this moment, we just found out that our tv hasn't been recording our shows, so we just missed _half_ of the new episode of Fringe, which, if you watch Fringe, you know that seeing only half of an episode is like trying to boil water with a lighter, _sure_, it'll work, _eventually_, but it takes too long, this analogy isn't really working is it? what I mean is that watching only half is like watching only half of any movie or tv show, it takes a while to figure out the story and sometimes you never do. And tomorrow, I have a French tutoring session for the AP test coming up in April, and like thirty minutes after when it should end, I have to go to a parade for band, yeah, I'm gonna be pretty busy.

Anyway, Jhinra and James Birdsong both reviewed and azukarr favorited the story; all of you are _full_ of pure _awesomeness_! And I think that I have finished writing _all_ (or at least _most) _of the short story things that I wanted to write, so now I'm going to try and focus all my writing attention on the spin-off series, that I haven't really been focusing on because of writer's block, since I had all these short story ideas for this, but now, I think I'm good to go, so since there's still another seven stories to go, I'm going to update them _every_ week from now on.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

The Cheshire Cat, at seven years old, was already the most valued member of the Chaotic Neutral Guild; he never understood the guild master's reasoning for the name, but at the age of five, when he'd first ran away from home and joined the guild, he hadn't quite cared about the name of his new home. Nor had he quite cared for his partner, Aaron Earsten, who they instead called, the White Rabbit, on missions. The two boys, always close in age, had never truly gotten along, instead holding a tenuous relationship that somehow worked around their partnership in whatever mission they had to take, whether it be to steal something, kill someone, or whatever else that normally goes against the law, that the client might want them to do.

At the moment though, the boys were in complete unison as their eyes looked at the other and then back at the guild master, an older man with a ruddy gray beard and a balding head of hair that couldn't decide between red and gray; what few people realized, upon looking at him, was just how dangerous a man he truly was, having killed many a man with his bare hands.

"I kno' i's no' th' usual job fo' you two, bu' th' client is bigger than anyone else we ever 'ad befor', we _cannae_ afford to upset 'em." he told his young members.

"But _who _is it?" Aaron asked, his bloody red eyes glaring at the guild master.

The master just glared back with his own plain brown eyes, "I was gittin' to tha', ya brat." he told the white haired boy, whose rabbit ears twitched back at the harsh tone from the master that had taken the place of his own father, though he refused to let up on his glare, "It's the Queen of Hearts."

Both of the boys were very surprised to hear this, for the same reason, though they both had different opinions on that reason, "What, she can't do her own dirty work anymore?" the Cheshire Cat hissed, staying true to his fluffed out tail and drawn back ears.

"Yeah, I thought she was efficient enough to do her job _and_ kill people herself?" Aaron asked, as though asking about the weather instead of the Queen's habits with killing her subjects.

"I's not a mission to kill anyone; she wan's th' both of ya to protect her daughta." he explained, pulling out some papers and looking over them, "You'll both be headin' to th' palace tomorrow 'round ten, I'll take ya there myself, now then, git to your rooms, git your packs ready to move into the palace, and git a good rest tonigh', it'll be your last here." neither of the boys moved, still staring dumbfounded at the master, who glared back at them, "What're you doin' still standin' there, git to your rooms and pack!" he shouted, shooing them out of his office and into the hallway.

The boys glanced at each other again, before nodding their silent 'goodnight's to the other and walking off in opposite directions to their own rooms.

* * *

The Cheshire Cat looked bored out the carriage window as they drove to the Palace of Hearts, home to the Royal family of Wonderland; he'd visited many places throughout his years, and though loathe he was to admit it, he had to say that the Palace of Hearts was indeed an architectural marvel of wonderment.

The carriage stopped directly in front of the palace doors, which both the boys were thankful for, as the gates to the palace were a good five hundred or so feet from the doors. They had walked, even ran, far further before, but both were expecting this to be a rather cushy job, compared to past missions at least.

The doors began to creak open as they approached, revealing a stately looking frog-butler who motioned the two boys to follow after his hop down a twisting series of corridors and hallways to the grand throne room. There at the opposite end of the room were the Queen, and the King with their young daughter seated on her father's lap, smiling up at him as he told her something or other.

Aaron and the Cheshire Cat approached the Royal family with a confidence that only exuded from bodyguards who have long ago proven their worth.

"Ah, so you two are the best guards of the Chaotic Neutral Guild, I must admit, I was expecting someone older, but I shall trust Roald's decision to send you two." the Queen commented upon their arrival in front of her; the boys nodded their heads, giving no indication of any response to her hidden insult.

"I assure you, Your Majesty, the Cheshire Cat and I are indeed the best of the best from the Chaotic Neutral Guild." Aaron told her.

"Oh, I have no doubt about that, but you must allow me to doubt your abilities anyway, as this is the life of my _daughter _you hold in your hands." she told them, then as an afterthought she added, "After all, she _is_ the heir to my throne."

"Of course." the boys replied, the Cheshire Cat with more than a little contempt.

The Queen then turned to her daughter, "Alice, these are the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat, they're going to play with you from now on." she told her daughter with the slightest hint of a smile.

Cat wondered how a woman who so easily killed random people was even _capable_ of smiling at a child, but was distracted when said child finally looked at the two boy mercenaries. He was very surprised to find that he couldn't decide between tearing his yellow eyes from the chocolate brown that gazed at him and instead glance down at his shoes, or stare like a deer caught in headlights at the girl four years younger than him.

"Cans we go plays?" she asked her mother, who simply nodded her head, making Alice smile before running up to the boys; Aaron quickly evaded Alice's grab for his hand, but the Cheshire Cat was still distracted by the young girl's bright eyes and his wrist was easily caught, forcing him to stumble slightly after the girl. He could feel heat rush to his tanned face and hear Aaron's chuckling behind him; the greatest boy mercenary that Wonderland had ever seen had been surprised by a four year old.

Worse yet, he just _knew_ he had fallen for her on sight.


	48. The Take Over

A/N: I actually wanted to update this chapter either yesterday or earlier today, but the cable, phone, and internet went out and we were living in the dark ages (plus heating[thank gosh]) up until sometime around noonish. You see, it got so cold down here in south Texas (for once) that we actually had pretty bad case of ice, my school actually got cancelled for today (and my school normally won't cancel unless there's a hurricane) so yeah, I just playing _Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar _for a while, and I also finished reading _Virals_ by Kathy Reichs, if you like the tv series _BONES_, than you would probably like to know that she's the woman responsible for that show, seeing as how her book series about our favorite forensic anthropologist inspired the tv show in the first place. So anyway, yeah, I've pretty much been doing nothing, since most places were closed today for the bad weather, just stayed in my room and watched tv when the cable came back.

Moving on, of course, I course I must thank everyone who reviewed, I love you guys: it goes without saying that Jhinra reviewed, we also had James Birdsong who reviewed, fallen-rose15 favorited, and Sysylmi also favorited the story and submitted two reviews on earlier chapters, hopefully she'll catch up with the rest us soon enough.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Genivieve paced in her room, pulling at the blonde strands of hair, and breathing heavily, before sitting down on her bed and holding onto her head to try and think straight. She needed to make a checklist, see if what she was thinking was indeed true:

Her parents were dead. Check, she had seen the bodies herself; lying on their bed and still dressed in their sleeping clothes, but with skin cold as the grave.

Gwenivere was the one who killed their parents. Check, she knew how the residue of her sister's magic felt only too well; Gwenivere was always mean and had killed many of Genivieve's past pets with her magic, as a "joke" the magical twin had always insisted.

Was there a very high chance that Gwenivere would want to kill the only other person who also had a right to the throne? Yes, there was, almost as insanely high a chance as her sister was insanely mad with her power.

Did this mean Genivieve had to somehow fool her sister into giving her the throne? Yes.

Did this mean that Genivieve could easily _die_ just by _trying_ to attempt such a thing? Yes, it did.

But would Gwenivere's reign also risk the lives of all the subjects of Wonderland, and only Genivieve could save the unknowing populace? Yes and yes.

Would this mean that Genivieve would have to be taken for her sister? Yes.

Did this mean that she would have to be as vicious as her sister to convince everyone that she was indeed their princess and now queen? Perhaps, maybe she would be able to soften her approach to the queendom over time, but for the moment, she would indeed have to be as evil as her sister to show that she was indeed the rightful heir.

Genivieve took a deep breath, briefly wondering where Lawrence was, with how much she was panicking she was surprised the Caterpillar hadn't shown up already to help her calm down.

"Because _you_ already calmed ... yourself down."

Genivieve turned and looked at the nineteen, perhaps twenty, year old man who had sat down next to her on the bed, "Lawrence."

"Yes ... yes ... I am here." he replied, taking a deep breath from his hookah, "Anyway ... we have ... more pressing matters ... to attend to."

"Right." she answered, hoping they would indeed be able to stop her sister.

Genivieve was ready to do anything to keep Gwenivere off the throne; even if it meant being hated and despised by the very people she sought to save.


	49. Contract

A/N: Yeah, the internet in my room, and anywhere else in my house for that matter, is still acting funky; my dad has informed me that he is getting us a new router, because we are apparently using a _dinosaur_ among dinosaurs right now, I think it's just my technological curse acting up, and right before my laptop was about to reach a _full_ year; I've never had a laptop that lasted that long (this is my third one), because they normally die around Christmas from over-use. Anyway, I've had a _very_ busy week, I had _forty eight_ words that I had to give definitions for this week; sure thirty of them were for English and didn't even need to be a full sentence and I finished all of them in about three hours, but still, and the other eighteen were for US history, of course, I've got another eighteen due for Wednesday, so yep, I've got a fun weekend planned out, what with my plans to finish all of the US history homework before Monday and then I've got a French tutoring session tomorrow at one PM, but that's all besides the point; I've just had a rather busy week, I haven't even _once_,_ really_ been on the internet this week before today.

Anyway, hmmmmm, I'm a bit worried now, not even Jhinra reviewed the last chapter, are you dying or kidnapped Jhinra; is this signal that the apocalypse _is_ coming? (I'm making fun of the fact that she reviews _every_ chapter, except for that one time she was on vacation, but I really do hope you aren't dying/kidnapped/dead/the first sign of the apocalypse, Jhinra) or was the last chapter really so bad that no one even had the heart to tell me so? Really, if it sucks, please tell me and don't leave my mind alone to come up with the things you probably thought that are probably (read: _definitely_) a _lot_ worse than what you _actually_ thought; on another note I _did_ get one person who favorited, one of my other stories that's already finished, but I'll thank them here anyway, Dreamaker401 favorited Love is..., thanks again, even though you probably won't read this, but thanks anyway. I hope everyone is safe and that this chapter isn't as bad as my last one apparently was, sorry again for that. (if you feel bad about not reviewing for whatever crazy reason, please don't, I'm not trying to make you feel like that, really I'm not; honestly, I didn't even realize no one reviewed until I was looking through my email history for people to thank, so really do_ not_ feel bad)

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Genivieve stood at the edge of the doorway of her new husband's study; he sat at a desk in front of a portrait of her sister; she couldn't help but to cringe at the repetitive _thunk_ of his dagger stabbing the face that looked exactly like her own.

She sighed softly, too quiet for Leonart to hear her; she truly did feel as though she loved the man, even if he would never love her for so long as they both shall live, and maybe even into the after-life. She took a deep breath, there was still something that she had to ask of him, and she only hoped he would _at least_ listen to her.

Swallowing her fear, she stepped confidently into the room, "Hello, Leonart." she said to him, making him pause in his target practice; he looked over at her, and then without turning, he tossed the dagger once more, hitting the portrait dead between the eyes.

"Hello, my _queen_." he replied sounding, and looking, far less than pleased to see her.

Genivieve merely nodded, then decided that a blunt approach would probably be the best approach for her request, "We have not yet consummated our marriage." though she _did_ nearly die of embarrassment as she said it.

He seemed a bit flustered at her direct question and she couldn't help but think him quite cute, "W-what?"

"I am saying-"

"I know what you're saying, but what makes you think I would dare give you a daughter?"

"Because, if you give me a child, boy or girl, I do not care, then I will allow for a change in government; we shall shift to a parliamentary monarchy, the royal family will be little more than a figurehead and Wonderland will be ruled by elected officials."

Leonart stared blankly at her for a long time, trying to compute why a woman who killed her own parents, just to get to her throne sooner, would give it up just as easily for a _baby_, "You can't really blame me if I don't exactly believe you will keep a promise like that."

She pulled his dagger out of her sister's face and made a fine line of blood bloom on her hand, "Give me your hand." he slowly handed it over, and she made the same line along his hand, then she lined up the blood and pressed their hands close together, "I, Genivieve Amadillia Ernestia Heart, swear that if you, Leonart Mikeal Heart Jonesy, give me a child, than we shall have a change of government to a parliamentary monarchy. This contract shall be honored so long as neither of us attempts to kill the other and I do not attempt to shorthand you, if either of these things should happen, then the contract is considered null and void. Do you, Leonart Mikeal Heart Jonesy accept the conditions of this contract?"

"I do."

"Then the contract has been signed." she finished, wincing slightly as the blood burned between their hands; when they finally pulled their hands away, the fine lines of blood had been replaced by fine lines of burns.

Leonart looked at his new scar, "I've never heard of a blood contract before." he stated, running his fingers along the lighter patch of skin.

"That's because blood contracts are only for those in the royal family." she answered.

They stood in an awkward silence that seemed to grow exponentially, before Genivieve finally decided to end it.

"Thank you." she told him awkwardly, before exiting the room without another word.

Genivieve sat on the bed, fidgeting anxiously as the old Dr. Harrison looked in his journal over his recordings of her state. He huffed as he read, adjusted his glasses, coughed; it seemed to Genivieve that the old man was _purposely_ taking as long as possible to tell her the news that she needed to know.

"Well, Your Majesty, it would seem," he paused to cough and Genivieve was about ready to threaten the man with the gun she carried on her if he didn't tell her the news already, "that you are, at the least, nine weeks pregnant with child."

Genivieve couldn't stop the smile that blossomed on her face as she laid a hand on her still small stomach, and Dr. Harrison couldn't help but be surprised that the queen even _knew_ how to smile in joy if not at someone else's expense.

"I will, of course, recommend to the chefs, that they change their cooking to foods that should be beneficial for the heir, also, you will not be allowed to go horseback riding anymore, and I shall tell your advisors to keep your schedule as simple as possible, too much stress is bad for the babe." Dr. Harrison told her, hoping his standing as her doctor would save him from any wrath that the Queen might show from being ordered about.

The doctor's orders flew straight over Genivieve's head, all she could think about now was her joy over having a child, a child that she could give a _proper_ childhood to, and perhaps, her husband would be so thrilled with the news, and find that after the responsibilities of the queendom had been handed over to the parliament, that his wife was truly someone he could fall in love with?

Well, Genivieve could dream such at any rate.

The second the old doctor had finished telling her everything that she should have been listening to, Genivieve dashed out of the ward and to her husband's study, where she found him reading a book at his desk.

"Leonart." she said, announcing her presence, the man simply 'hm'ed in reply, "Leonart, I have great news." she told him.

"What would this news be?" he asked her, flipping another page in his book.

"I am with child." she told him excitedly.

"That's great." he dead-panned, rather shocking Genivieve with his lack of reaction to the fact that she was now _bound _to give up her role as Queen of Wonderland.

"Leonart, why are you not excited? This means I must now fulfill my half of the contract." she told him, walking to stand beside him at his desk.

He finally turned to look at her with a raised brow, "Contract? What are you talking about?" he asked, that was when Genivieve noticed the dagger sticking from the forehead of the painting of her sister.

She paled at the sight of it, and then grabbed her husband's hand, and looked desperately for the burn, it was gone. She looked at her husband but said to the portrait, "You plan to kill me."

Leonart simply replied, "Yes, of course, I've been trying to kill you for a long time, we met _while_ I was trying to kill you, or do you not remember?"

She pushed his hand away like it had stung her, and with nary a word she left Leonart with a raised brow and an empty study.

Genivieve walked down every set of stairs she could find until she finally found the ones that led to the tantrum room that she had locked her sister away in so long ago.

"You've _cursed_ him!" she shouted with tears in her eyes at the strong green door.

"Hm, oh, yes, I tend to do that to people up there, even from down here." a muffled voice from the other side replied.

"Why?" she asked her sister, "Is this just to torture me?"

"If I promise to release your little _lover _boy, do you promise to return my proper throne to me?"

"Never!" Genivieve answered with no hesitation, knowing that doing such a thing would merely be signing away Leonart's life.

"Very well, then he will _never_ love you, he shall turn that child inside you, against you, and he will_ never_ stop trying to kill you, until I _die_." her sister told her, laughing manically at the very thought that she might be capable of something so beneath her as death.

Genivieve could say nothing knowing that the woman behind the door, with all the magic coursing through her veins, just might _never_ die.


	50. A Meeting Between Butterflies

A/N: I recently got back from seeing the movie, _I am Number Four_, and I was throwing a fit almost the entire hour and a half; they _totally_ didn't follow the book, like one of the only things that they did follow was about Bernie Kosar in the beginning, and then they screwed up, my gosh, there are so many things that I want to complain about concerning the movie, but it actually pretty good, like you learn a _lot_ of things that they didn't put in the book (because it was probably being save for the second book), but my _gosh_ I _hate/despise/abhor_ when the movies don't even put any _true_ effort into keeping to the _actual_ story-line of what they're emulating, I _hate _that_ so much_!

Enough of my ranting, if you really want to hear me complain some more, than you can go ahead and PM me about what you also didn't like about the movie, or attempt to defend it, anyway, moving on, time to thank any reviewers/favorites/alerters: James Birdsong is back, he reviewed, and everyone else is really starting to worry me, remember how last time I said I'd hoped that you guys weren't kidnapped/dead/dying/abducted by aliens? yeah, I was being serious dudes, so try to avoid any suspicious men with candy/suspicious vans/suspicious men _without_ candy/suspicious cornfields/suspicious cows/whatever else might endanger your health/well-being/breathing/life.

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Jillliana looked up from her book of legal law as her brother climbed in through a window, bringing with him the smoke of his hookah.

"Hello Lawrence." she replied, turning back to her book.

"Hello ... Jilliana." he replied, and there was a silence between them before he suddenly asked, "When did ... you get ... so old?"

She looked up at her brother, still a young man in his twenties, and then at the mirror on the wall behind him, where she saw a woman entering her thirties staring back at her, even she seemed to be a bit surprised to realize that she really _had_ aged, from a girl of only nineteen when she first left the Nile Valley for Wonderland, and suddenly she was on the edge of being a middle aged woman.

"I don't know, I suppose it just _happened_." she finally answered, setting her bookmark and placing her book down.

Lawrence stared at her with a certain look, "How?" his sister raised a brow in question, "How did ... you age?"

Jilliana stared at her brother for a while, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because ... I just ... want to." Lawrence answered, sitting himself down in the chair opposite his sister and then glancing around, "Where is ... your hookah?"

"Oh, yes, I only take it out when I smoke." she answered.

"How often ... _do_ you ... smoke now?"

She had to think about it, "Maybe, once or twice a month now." she answered, surprising even her with how little she smoked, when she'd first left the Nile Valley, she smoked two or three times a week, and now, here she was, nearing the end of the month and without having smoked even once.

"Is that ... how ... you age?" Lawrence tentatively asked her.

She stared at her little brother again, trying to read his thoughts through the hazy smoke, and she suddenly got a little clear patch where she could see it, "Oh, is this about that human girl you fancy yourself in love with?"

He took another deep breath of his hookah, "I don't ... know what ... you're talking ... about." he replied calmly.

"Oh _please_ Lawrence, I _am _your big sister, don't think I don't _know _youby _now._" she answered, to which he responded by blowing a few circles of smoke into her face, she rolled her eyes, "Yes, I think it is the lack of smoking, and my mother's genes, that allow me to age, at least I figure so, I still follow almost all of the other old traditions, but those are probably the major factors here."

He nodded his head and seemed to be contemplating the news, rolling it about in his head as it digested there, and was about to take another deep breath off of his hookah, but stopped himself.

"You know, I'm not sure if you'll be able to stop." she told him plainly

"What?"

"Honestly Lawrence, you've probably smoked more than any other Lepidoptera to date, I think you might've smoked more than even _Absmuth_ could." she told him, referring to the ancient deity that had been the one to show the Lepidoptera race how to procure all of the ingredients for their smoke, and in all of his texts he would only speak a few words at a time, maybe three or four, but never only in twos or ones like Lawrence was doing now, "I just _don't think_, that with your level of addiction you'll be able to get to where I am, at least, not before she already marries, or _dies_."

Lawrence gave his sister one of his rare glares, chilling her straight down to the bone, "But ... I will." he replied, getting up from the chair and stomping towards the wall where a window was already appearing.

"Lawrence, wait!" Jilliana shouted at him, getting up to stop him, but he'd already gone through the window and it had gone after him.

Touching the spot where the window had been, Jilliana cried out three words, "Don't do it."

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A/N: I know some of you might be thinking "What? Did Lawrence's sister really _discourage_ her brother from quitting his addiction?" Yes, she did, but for good reason, and all will be explained next chapter, trust me, she was trying to _spare_ him.


	51. Withdrawal

Lawrence paced his room, constantly rubbing his face, or pulling his hair, his wings twitching nervously, and his breathing heavy.

_Can't do it._

"Shut up!" he shouted, tossing a nearby vase in the direction of where the voice had whispered devilishly from, leading the vase to an untimely end by smashing into a wall.

_You can't do it._

Lawrence nearly tore another clump of hair from his head, trying to ignore the voice that was so evilly tempting him to break down.

_You don't love her enough._

**_You've never loved her enough._**

_Not the first one, or the second, not even the third, and _definitely_ not _this _one._

"Shut up!" he shouted again, knowing _just _where the voice planned on going, but unable to stop it.

_Oh, but it's true, isn't it._

**_Of course it is_**

_You don't have the _will_ to do _anything _for _anyone.

**_Why do you think your mother _killed_ herself, having a son like _you?**

"_**Shut up!**_" he growled viciously at the second voice that laughed madly at his rage, "She didn't ... do that ... because ... of Me." he said comparably more calmly.

**_Well, she certainly didn't love you enough _not _to._**

_And your sister didn't love you enough to _warn _you about this, did she?_

Lawrence tried to place his hands over his ears to block out the voices, but that seemed to only make them _louder_.

**_Poor little Lawrence, your mother _killed _herself in _front _of you._**

_Oh no, your sister _knew _this would happen, but she didn't _tell _you anything._

**_How old were you, seven? Yes, it was _seven_ wasn't it._**

_Of course, why _would _she tell you, she's probably _laughing_, just _thinking_ about what you're going through._

**_But wasn't the blood so pretty, weren't those your mother's last words, about how the blood _sparkled_ like rubies?_**

_Oh, and what about that _other _girl, Kaleigh, oh _yes_, she had no qualms about killing you, did she?_

**_Oh, and your sister wasn't much help, was she, already so worried about her career._**

_So long as she made a few bucks, she didn't care about killing her little "_Kiddo_" _

**_And then you went and had her _killed.**

"**Stop it, stop it, **_**stop it!**_" he begged the voices, not wanting to remember anything about what they talked about.

_Oh, and this _new _one, Amarissa._

**_Oh yes, a _princess_ this time._**

_Hahaha, how _stupid _of him, if his own _mother _didn't want him,_

**_Than how could a _princess_?_**

_Isn't it _cute_, how he thinks he even has a _chance_, with a girl like _that_?_

**_I know she's _much_ too good for you._**

_She deserves a _real_ prince, not the son of some common,_

**_Two cent,_**

_Whore _

**_From a back alley harem._**

"Please ... just ... _stop _already." he begged the voices, already crying from the pain the memories, and the truths, brought up.

_You _know _what will make this stop._

**_Just give up; you'd never have a chance with her anyway._**

_How could she love someone so _ancient?

**_The age difference is too great, how much older is he?_**

_At least a hundred years, I think._

**_How _disgusting_, you're a sick _pervert_, you know that?_**

_Going after a girl who's only, what, _fourteen_?_

**_If _I_ was her sister, I would have _killed_ you for even _thinking_ that you had a chance with someone so young._**

_Especially her _sweet_ little sister._

"Stop it." he weakly begged as he curled into a fetal position on the floor, already feeling his resolve crumble.

_No._

**_You need to _accept _just _what_ you are._**

_A _sick. Disgusting. Weak. Bastard.

**_You're a weak thing; you don't have the will to resist it._**

_Just _give up_, let yourself become _numb_ again._

**_You know it will make _everything _go away._**

_Just a _little_ breath won't hurt, now will it?_

**_Oh no, in fact, it would be _marvelous_, wouldn't it?_**

"Fine." he finally admitted, taking the hookah from the safe he'd placed it in and breathing in the smoke, sending it deep into his constricted lungs as his addiction screamed in joy at being reunited with the drug.

_Hahaha, now, will you do this again?_

"Yes ... I will." he told the voices, and they were silent, though they had yet to leave.

_Then, I suppose we'll be back, now won't we?_

**_Oh yes, and next time, it will be _worse_._**

_Are you _still _sure you want to do this _again_?_

**_You know what's going to happen._**

"And I ... will be ... ready ... next time." he could feel the disappointment rolling off the voices in waves, but just as suddenly as they had come two nights ago when he had decided to go cold turkey, they were gone.

"Thank Absmuth." he said, as he dropped down to the ground, unable to support himself after all the abuse.

Jilliana had been right of course, this was the _third_ time that he had done this, and the voices were only getting _worse_, he hadn't even realized that was possible, but they could make even spilled milk into the most traumatic incident of your life, and it didn't help that Lawrence already had a reservoir of misery that they could abuse.

But he had to take it, if he wanted to age, so that he could _live_ with Amarissa, than he _needed_ to suffer through it, and he would.

A/N: I am quite certain that most of you are having personal WTF moments at this whole situation, what with the discovery of Lawrence's mother having killed herself in front of her son when he was only seven, Kaleigh (the woman bodyguard who was once so nice to him) tried to kill him, and apparently Jilliana didn't give an eff about him when they were younger. Everything shall be explained in another story, the thing with Kaleigh won't though, so here's the short version, Jayce was actually the only one hired to escort the professor to the Nile Valley, and Kaleigh used the cover up of traveling with him because her _actual _mission was to kill Lawrence; she was nice to him to gain his trust so that her mission would be easier, of course, she still failed to kill him, and Jayce had to kill her for endangering his charge and being found out, such is the life of a mercenary in Wonderland.


	52. Mature for His Age

A/N: I AM SO SORRY! I didn't update last weekend because I got so preoccupied with other school stuff, and I'm going to be pretty preoccupied again, I've got an analytical research paper for English that we're starting tomorrow and it's due in April, and gosh, I just feel pretty panicked right now, sorry. Besides all of that, my laptop's internet is being a douche again, we have a new router, but my laptop is all like 'NU-UH, I AIN'T CONNECTING TO THAT NETWORK' and it just seems that my technology curse is reminding me that it exists, I'm sorry for being cursed! Anyway, thank you SO MUCH if you've continued to read this story even though I've been all douchey with not updating when I say I will, again, you are all AWESOME!

I would like to thank James Birdsong for reviewing, he's just pimp like that, aren't you James Birdsong?; and I would like to also thank Organ Man for favoriting this story, might I just say that your name is kinda creepy, because I read it, and the first thing that came to my mind was Slenderman (please don't google that, unless you want to be all paranoid about every dark corner you see), but thank you nonetheless for liking my story so much.

_**WARNING: THERE IS SOME BLOOD IN THIS CHAPTER AND I DO NOT ENDORSE NOR ADVOCATE THE ACTIONS OF ANY AND ALL CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY, THAT IS ALL**_

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Lawrence, only seven years old, had never really played with anyone else; his mother always kept him close to her, saying it was dangerous for him to roam alone in the palace, and being only seven, he did not understand his mother's constant worrying and suspicious glances at the women around her in the part of the palace designated for his father's wives and their children.

But he did have to admit that his mother's strange actions, especially as of late, greatly confused him, she was constantly listless, staring out the window blankly for _hours_ at a time; she was also forgetting him at places, leaving him behind as she raced ahead, completely consumed in some thought that would occupy her attention sufficiently enough that she would leave her own son behind to be lost in the maze of corridors that made up the palace, just like she had then, leaving Lawrence to toss a ball at the wall so it would bounce back at him.

Though his mother often did this sort of thing, she _always_ remembered to come back for him and pick him up, begging for his forgiveness, which he would give because, well, she was his mother, and obviously _very _worried with whatever it was that concerned her, and though he was young, Lawrence could tell that she should be allowed to have _some_ time to herself to think about whatever it was.

What he had _not _expected to happen while he was playing, was for a girl to show up, perhaps eleven or twelve to his seven years, she seemed very mature for her age, with that same certain air about her that tended to hang off of the other women that his mother was always so nervous around. Like him, she had dark hair, dark eyes, and a fair complexion, much fairer than even his own, and he deduced that the girl must be one of the sisters of his that his mother always kept him away from.

Ignoring any warning that his mother had told him about staying away from the sisters, he tossed the ball to her, and it bounced a bit, before merely rolling to a stop at the sandaled feet underneath her light dress.

She picked up the ball and stared at Lawrence, "Who are you?" she asked him, giving him a suspicious glance.

"I'm Lawrence Vanchre, First Prince of the King Vanchre." he answered, giving that full title that always made his mother flinch when she heard it, he always wondered about that, "Who're you?" he asked in return.

"I'm Jilliana Vanchre, Thirteenth Princess of the King Vanchre." she replied, deciding that he was ok and finally tossing the ball back to him, "I never knew I had a brother."

"I've never met any of the sisters, well, besides you." he tossed it back to her, "Mommy told me not to be around them, but you seem nice."

"Don't you think it's weird your mommy told you not to hang around your own sisters?"

"No, Mommy said that _their_ mommies might be mean to me, and Mommy just wants me to be safe; besides, I heard one of the mommies whipped a servant because he brought her the wrong kind of _cloth _for something she was working on, that doesn't sound like a nice mommy."

"That was Krisna's mommy, she's the Tenth Princess, and yeah, her mommy _is_ kinda mean, but she was in a bad mood that day."

"That _still_ doesn't mean that she should do something like that, that servant was my mommy's friend, Krisna's mommy should apologize."

"Krisna's mommy is just like that, I don't know why, but the other mommies don't really like your mommy."

"Does _your _mommy not like _my_ mommy?"

"I don't know, my mommy died when I was three, how old are you?"

"I'm seven."

"Then that was _before _you were born, but my mommy didn't like Krisna's mommy either."

"Maybe my mommy and your mommy would have been friends."

"Maybe." Jilliana answered and the ball came back to her, she suddenly looked up and tossed the ball back to Lawrence, "I have to go now, bye Lawrence."

"Bye bye, Jilliana." Lawrence answered with a smile and a wave, happy to have finally gotten to play with someone.

Jilliana just walked off, not once had she smiled at her little brother.

"Lawrence!" he turned at the sound of his mother's worried voice and she ran up to him, scooping the young boy into her warm arms, "Oh Lawrence ... I am _so_ sorry ... how could I just _leave _you here ... oh _please _forgive me ... _please_."

"Of course, Mommy." Lawrence answered, letting go of the ball so he could wrap his arms around his mother, who smelled so much like that sweet, sweet smoke that anyone over thirteen seemed to always be _drenched_ in, but his mother seemed to always _drown_ in it.

Lawrence and Jilliana were hiding in the pantry, and he honestly couldn't remember _why_, but they were.

"Is it safe to go out yet?" he asked after so many minutes of silence, only getting hushed in response, and in the dim light from the cracks in the wood, he was able to see her face scrunch up in deep thought.

"I'm going to leave." she suddenly announced, not even looking at him, but more saying it to herself.

"Why?" he asked, his own face scrunching up in confusion, wondering why anyone would ever even _want_ to leave the palace, not when the sweet, sweet smoke buried itself so deep into everything in the palace, that even their hiding place smelled of it, and when they could get as many sweets as they wanted from any of the cooks, just by telling them their names.

"Because, I don't belong here, do you know who my mommy was?" she asked him.

"Who was she?" he questioned in answer.

"She was a regular, old, _human_, from _Wonderland_; now if _that_ don't sound like someplace exciting, I don't know _what _does."

His jaw dropped open, even _he_ knew how far away Wonderland was from the Nile Valley, it was supposed to take _three months _in _perfect _conditions to even reach the _outskirts_ of their country, and there was almost _never_ perfect conditions: bandits, sandstorms, the Volcanic Plains, jabberwockies, supposedly, even _bandersnatch_, and so many other obstacles lied between Wonderland and the capital of the Nile Valley. "_How_ did she even _get_ here?" he asked in awe.

"Well, my grandpa was supposed to have gotten blamed for a bad crime, and _no one_, wanted to defend him, so they had to run away, because if they stayed in Wonderland, they would have gotten _killed_, and they decided that whatever they faced on the way here, couldn't be any worse than what the _Queen of Hearts_ would have done to them."

He nodded his head, having heard so many tales about the fierce Queens of Wonderland, who were supposed to be the most _vicious _things to have _ever_ lived, with a list of deaths even crueler than those suffered by the victims of the jabberwockies and bandersnatch, _combined_.

"So I wanna go to Wonderland, and become a lawyer, so I can help people that _no one_ else will." she told him, a fire burning in her eyes.

"And you can do it." he told her, completely confident in her, and for the first time since he met her, she smiled, and he smiled back.

"Mommy, what's going on?"

Lawrence watched as his mother tried to wipe away the tears spilling down her eyes while she set a letter off to the side, "N-no-nothing, L-Lawrence." she answered with a shaky breath and a sniffling nose, tears continued to make tracks down her face.

"Why are you crying?" he asked her, going up to his mother and hugging her.

She hugged him back tightly, and in her crying voice she answered, "Be-because ... I-I'm just, just so _happy_." he could feel his mother move a bit, but kept his face buried in her dress, taking comfort in the smoke that he smelled on her, "La- Lawrence ... y-you trust M-Mommy ... right?"

"Yes." he answered.

"Th-then trust ... trust Mommy ... thi-this will, it-it'll on-only hurt ... f-for a little wh-while."

Lawrence felt a stabbing pain in his side, and was quick to place his hands at the pain, feeling some liquid seep out of the wound, he looked down and saw red staining his hands and clothes, then he looked up at his mother, whose wrists were crying red to match the tears in her eyes.

"S-see ... we, we'll be happy now." she told him in a soft, disappearing voice, "Is-isn't it ... so p-pretty? ... J-just like rubies." and her eyes glazed over as her figure slumped against the chair.

Lawrence could vaguely hear someone struggle with the door, before he too blacked out of the world.

When Lawrence finally woke up, the world was made of white and far too bright. It took him far too long to realize that he was alive and not just drifting through some sort of afterlife.

As he finally took in his surroundings, he realized he was in the hospital ward of the palace, and then everything came back to him, his mother stabbing him in the side before slitting her own wrists and dying in front of him; he couldn't stop the tears that left his eyes as he realized his mother was dead, and he was now left alone in the world.

"Lawrence?"

He sniffled and tried to wipe away the tears, and saw Jilliana standing there, holding some heavy leather bound books. He sniffled and swallowed down the rest of his tears, trying not to cry in front of his sister.

"Your mommy's dead." she dead panned, causing his tears to break down the feeble wall he had set in front of them, "You big baby, stop crying." she growled at him, glaring at the young boy.

He glared back, "My mommy just _died_, I can cry if I want to!" he shouted back indignantly, ignoring the tears that continued to stream down his face.

"Yeah, so what, when _my_ mommy died, everyone told me to shut up too, so you're not allowed to cry either." she sternly told him, frowning her disapproval at the little boy.

"Well, she didn't try to _kill_ you did she, besides, she wasn't a _human_."

"And what's _that _supposed to mean?"

"She shouldn't have died so young, she shouldn't have been _weak_ like _your _mommy."

"Humans age too fast, my mommy died because she was _old_, not because she _wanted _to."

"At least _my_ mommy _loved _me enough to _want_ me withher!"

That did it, Jilliana launched herself at the little boy and started to punch and kick him, and he was too surprised to do anything back, so he ended up with more scratches and bruises. Some medics came into the room to check on the ruckus, and looked appalled by what they saw before they pulled Jilliana off of Lawrence and dragged her, kicking and screaming, from the hospital ward.

Lawrence tried to stop the tears, but they just seemed to spill faster and faster instead, and pathetic little sobs wracked his entire, small frame.

Two weeks later, when he was allowed to return to the room that he had shared with his mother, he found the strange device that he had always seen her smoking from, and remembering how she would always breathe from it when she was sad, he inhaled the smoke deeply, coughing it all back out in loud and raspy whoops. Then he went back for another breath.

He had never before felt so _happy_ in his entire life.


	53. At Last

A/N: I'm sorry for not updating this sooner, but I got distracted with other things, namely watching movies from Blockbuster with my parents, finally saw Due Date, finished watching Dinner for Schmucks, and just got done watching The Kids Are All Right; they're all pretty funny, except in The Kids Are All Right, there were sex scenes, and my mom got all panicked and told me to cover my eyes, even though it's like absolutely nothing to me, but whatever. Anyway, today is my first official day of spring break, and besides watching that movie, I have done absolutely nothing, didn't wake up til like 12:30ish and then I've just been watching tv and playing Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar, because the internet won't work on my laptop and my iPad won't turn on for some reason, so I'm trying to figure that out right now. Oh, and this is the penultimate chapter, the next time I update, it shall be the last time I do so on this story (as far as I know at least), thank you all again for being such great readers!

Anyway, let's move on, I do not believe I thanked Poppyseed22 for favoriting this story in the last chapter, so I shall do so now, thank you for favoriting Poppyseed22; and Jhinra is back, the aliens finally figured out that she was basically worthless and decided to send her back to earth, not very smart aliens if it took them this long to figure out, I kid Jhinra, I kid. :P

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

* * *

Amarissa looked down at her tea, sighing heavily, before outright groaning as she let her head fall onto the table in front of her, thankfully not spilling either of the two cups or miscellaneous tea things on the table.

She could just _feel_ Lawrence roll his eyes at her from his place across the table, with his chin leaning in one hand and the other set on his lap beneath the table. But no one could blame her, really, she was almost twenty six now, and her parents were _this_ close to getting her in an arranged marriage, though she had so far managed to evade the topic altogether with some _very_ crafty thinking on her part (read as: she ran away every time she saw her parents walking towards her).

"Honestly though, why _are_ you here, I mean, I haven't seen you in almost ten years now, why the sudden visit?" she asked him, though it _had _been a near decade since seeing the man for any extended amount of time, they had seen each other in a short moment here and there, and even kept up a letter correspondence.

"Just ... because." he replied.

"Whatever, can you _believe_ how _insistent _myparents are about this whole arranged marriage thing? I mean, _seriously_, the guy is _so _not my type, I mean, he's like, a _prince_, I bet _he's_ never actually been on the battlefield of a war zone."

"Then ... what _is_?" he asked her, making her stop the rant she was about to go off on, as she stared at him with a confused look, "Your type … that is."

"Um, well, that is, I know my type when I see it, but it's _definitely _no _prince_, _especially_ one from _Teeland_, I mean _really_, all _anyone_ from Teeland talks about is the Teeland tea, and dear lord, I _hate _Teeland tea." she answered, frowning at the mere _thought_ of the too sweet tea that Teeland was _famous_ for.

Amarissa could have sworn the Butterfly had nearly smirked at her, but it was hard to tell, what with how emotionless he tended to be, but now that she was looking at him, she noticed something rather important.

"Is it just me, or are you older?"

He raised a slender brow, "Well ... I'm _much_ older ... than you could ... even imagine."

"No, I mean like, you _look_ older, like when I first met you were like twenty or something, now you're suddenly like, thirty." and now that she thought about it, his speech seemed strange, it didn't come in the same easy laze that she remembered, it sound more like the laziness to it was _forced_?

"Not even ... the Lepidoptera ... are immortal ... you know?" he answered.

"Lawrence, I mean you've aged like _ten years_, and I _know_ that the harvest season from when I _first_ met you isn't even _over_ yet." she insisted.

"You merely ... seem to have ... forgotten what ... I looked like." he told her.

Suddenly she realized something that she _really_ should have noticed straight off the bat, "You haven't smoked once since you got here." she told him, finally getting no convenient answer from the man, "Are you sick? Oh my God, you're _dying_, _aren't _you?" she asked, eyes growing wide in panic.

"No." he answered simply, finally taking his other hand out from underneath the table, pushing a small velvet box towards her.

She looked down at it, then at Lawrence, the box, Lawrence, the box, and finally she decided to stop before she damaged her neck and grabbed the box, opening it carefully, finding a silver band with a large onyx stone set in the center, surrounded by green and red gems; was this supposed to be what she thought it was?

"I must admit, I am myself an _exiled_ prince, self-imposed of course, but I am certainly not from Teeland." he informed her, making Amarissa look up from the ring to stare at him, "So if you would accept, I would perhaps be the happiest I could ever be if you were to say yes." he finished, not really looking like he expected her to say yes, and though he would deny it if anyone were to point it out. He finally understood that expression that Cat had once said about "butterflies" in his stomach when he proposed to Alice; though obviously, this and that were two completely different situations, Cat _had_ to have known that Alice was going to say yes anyway, really, the girl didn't even give him the chance to ask before replying, whereas Lawrence, he _honestly _did not know what Amarissa's answer would be.

She seemed a bit amazed to hear him say so much in one breath without any trouble and just as she opened her mouth to answer (again, Lawrence would vehemently deny it to his death, but his heart stopped beating for just a moment), Samarissa bounded through the door.

_Completely_, ignoring the mood of the moment, and not even so much as _noticing_ Lawrence, Samarissa turned to her little sister and could _not_ stop gushing, "Oh, Amarissa, that Prince Bradley from Teeland is finally here, you simply _must _meet him, he's _ever_ so charming and handsome, and I _know_ he would make such a _wonderful _husband for you."

Before her sister could continue on with how many nieces and nephews she expected her sister and him to have together, Amarissa quickly interrupted, "I do apologize, Samarissa, but I was in the middle of replying to a _very _important question of Lawrence's."

Samarissa turned to see Lawrence and gasped before turning back to her sister, "_Amarissa_, how _dare _you be so _improper _as to meet with a man who is not courting you in _private_."

"Well then, I suppose the only way to fix that is by answering him." and before Samarissa could ask what _that _meant, she turned to Lawrence, took the ring from the box, slid it onto her finger where it seemed to fit like it was _made_ for her, and told him, "Lawrence Vanchre, I would be _more _than pleased to give you my hand in marriage."

Samarissa's mouth actually _dropped_ open, as her little sister merely walked around her and towards her new fiancé, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you did that just to piss her off and get out of meeting Prince Bradley." Lawrence told her.

"Then it's a good thing you _do_ know those are just bonuses." she replied, smiling at him, "Shall we tell my parents?"

"Shouldn't we do something about her?" he gestured at Samarissa, who just stood there, completely frozen in shock.

"Oh, she'll get back to normal sooner or later." Amarissa replied, dragging her fiancé to inform her parents that either they could give the couple their blessing, or they would simply have to elope.

Oh yes, if Amarissa wanted something, she knew _just_ how to appeal to her parents.


	54. Sisters

A/N: Well, this is it, this is the last extra one shot that I have finished, perhaps in the future I will write another one or few, but for now, I do not see that happening. I'm going to try and focus most of my energy on schoolwork for now, but I will be working on other stories as well, so don't worry about that. It's been a long ride, this story has definitely been my favorite to write and I _really_ had a _lot_ of fun writing it, and even more fun when I got to reply to reviews that you, my faithful readers, wrote for me. Thank you all again _so much_! I really could _not_ have done this whole story without your support, thanks again!

RER, Read, Enjoy, Review! :D

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Amarissa and Jilliana sat across from each other in silence, Amarissa feeling nervous and uneasy being alone with her soon to be sister-in-law, and Jilliana seeming like any other calm and composed lawyer.

"So," Jilliana began, setting down the tea she had been drinking, in favor of resting her head upon her folded hands to stare at the younger girl, "_you_ are the one that my little brother was so intent upon marrying."

"Yes." Amarissa answered, nodding her head, and paying no attention to the still untouched tea that had been set in front of her when she had first arrived, over twenty minutes ago.

"Mhmm." she said rather indifferently, "So, just how much about himself _did_ Lawrence tell you? He is rather notorious for keeping things to himself."

"Well, he _didn't_ tell me he was a prince."

"_Was_, is the keyword here; he handed down the crown to one of our younger brothers."

"He did tell me that he was the sixth youngest of twenty."

"Yes, I am one of his sisters, do you know which one?"

"The thirteenth."

"How many siblings are there?"

"Seventeen sisters, thirteen older and four younger, and then two younger brothers."

"Did he tell you _just_ how our mother had _twenty_ children?"

"Almost none of you have the same mother."

"Correct." and Jilliana took the momentary lull in conversation to sip her tea.

"He also told me about, what happened when he was seven." Amarissa admitted, trying to gauge Jilliana's reaction to this.

Jilliana looked up at the young princess with surprise clear across her face, "He did?"

"Yes and how you two made up later on, shortly before you left for Wonderland."

Jilliana still looked surprised, "Our own _father_, _still_ doesn't know that Lawrence and I met long before I left the palace, and neither does anyone else, besides you."

"Oh, um-"

"No no, it's fine if you know, I'm just, _surprised_, that he would tell _anyone_, it's obviously something he doesn't like to talk about, or even trust anyone with."

"Well, I can understand why that might be."

She stared at the young woman for a moment or two longer before nodding her head and saying, "I approve." and simply leaving the room, making Amarissa wonder when this had turned from an afternoon tea to get to know her sister-in-law, to an appraisal session for her sister-in-law to get to know _her_.

Lawrence, for perhaps the second time in his _entirely too_ _long_ life, was experiencing that unsettling emotion vaguely known as fear.

Samarissa was seated across from him, on a white couch with blood red pillows, and her lips were painted an even _brighter_ red; she merely sat on the other side of the coffee table from him, smiling that _too_ nice smile of hers that he felt indicated something _disturbed_ lied underneath the surface.

"Lawrence," she started, her voice sweet as honey and sugar, "tell me, how _much_ do you love, my _sweet_, _precious_, _darling_, _adorable_, little Amarissa?"

"Entirely too much for me to form even an adequate verbal response that could properly proportionate how much I love her." he answered easily, knowing that answer was the truth.

He might have just imagined it, but he could have _sworn_ that he saw the corner of her smile twitch down for a _fraction_ of a second, "Really now?"

"Yes."

"Because that just sounds like a cover-up for the fact that you simply do _not_ love her enough." she told him, her smile not once faltering, and Lawrence couldn't decide if the smile made her more _disturbing_ or more _frightening_.

"That is _not_ what I am trying to say." he answered, actually a bit upset that Samarissa would imply such a thing.

"Mhmm." she replied condescendingly, he never knew that such a sound come off as condescending before, "Tell me, or at least _try_ to, _just_ how much you love her."

"I am afraid that words are simply not my strong suit and that actions are more to my favor; I can assure you though, that I will do any possible thing in my power to make sure of Amarissa's happiness, and if it is not in my power, then I shall simply have to make it so.

Before Lawrence could even register the movement, Samarissa was suddenly holding him, by the front of his shirt, a full _foot _off of the ground, never mind that he himself was actually a foot and a half taller than Samarissa, "Now then, what you are saying is, if Amarissa's life were ever in danger, and the only way to save her would be to hand yourself over, for _unimaginable_ _torture_, would you do that?"

"Without a second thought." he answered, he'd already lived through unimaginable torture for close to ten years, he knew he could handle it, especially if it were for Amarissa.

"And if my sister _ever_ says that she is unhappy in your marriage, you will let her leave you?"

"Yes, so long as she is happy, whether that be with me or with another man, then I will do my damned best to be happy for her." he replied calmly; he recalled that the oath, which all the White family now took, the only one about not harming any living creature, was only formed some twenty years ago; just around the time that Amarissa was born if his math was correct, and seeing how very protective of her sister she was, it was easy for Lawrence to figure out that it was because of something that Samarissa did for her sister, that the oath was even formed.

She let him go and he dropped unceremoniously onto the couch, then she settled back onto her own and sipped at her tea, as though she _hadn't_ just been silently threatening her future brother-in-law's life.

Lawrence recalled how Alice had worried about how fierce Cat's siblings were about his happiness with her, and he recalled how Cat had complained about the Queen warning him about what would happen if Alice was ever unhappy with their marriage; Lawrence had thought they were both exaggerating.

He could now see they were right, in-laws are absolutely crazy.


End file.
